The new facility is scheduled to become operational in the company’s fiscal year starting Apr. 1, 2025. Toray said it will use the facility to establish mass production technology for CO₂ separation membranes. The company wants to collaborate with biogas and natural gas production developers, related engineering manufacturers, and other external partners to validate the results so that the CO₂ separation membrane elements can be used in practice in the next financial year.

According to Toray, CO₂ emissions from natural gas are relatively low when burned, so its use as a stable energy source should continue to grow.

In recent years, the focus on developing gas fields with low CO₂ concentrations has increased the demand for more efficient CO₂ capture and recovery technologies, as gas fields with higher residual CO₂ concentrations need to be exploited.

It will be vital to develop technologies that can efficiently separate and recover CO₂ from biogas derived from biomass, which is a mixture of methane and CO₂, and from waste gases containing nitrogen and CO₂, using these technologies for carbon capture and storage and carbon capture and utilization, Toray said. The company’s research laboratories have confirmed the high separation performance and durability of its proprietary all-carbon CO₂ separation membrane in gas environments containing impurities.

Toray expects the technology to find wide-ranging applications, not only in biogas but also in natural gas production and in enhancing the efficiency of CO₂ separation for CCS (carbon capture and storage) and CCU (carbon capture and utilization), where CO₂ separation is essential.

In leveraging the new pilot facility to establish mass production technology, Toray looks to upscale prototypes and conduct demonstration tests working closely with biogas, natural gas production development companies, and diverse other partners to accelerate efforts towards practical application.