Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Environmental & Chemical Engineering Co., Ltd. (MHIEC), a part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) Group, has successfully completed the construction of the Nanbu Relay Center for the Ken’ou-Kennan Clean Authority (comprising the municipalities of Shimabara City, Isahaya City, Unzen City, and Minamishimabara City) in Nagasaki Prefecture. This project is part of the waste transfer facility development and operation contract awarded to MHIEC in 2024.

The project involved establishing a new Nanbu Relay Center in Minamishimabara City and managing a total of three relay centers, including the existing Tobu and Seibu Relay Centers. This initiative supports the efficient and stable transportation of combustible waste generated throughout the member municipalities to the second-phase waste treatment facility, the Ken’ou-Kennan Clean Center, newly constructed in Isahaya City and scheduled to commence operations in April 2026.

A relay center(1) serves as a critical hub where waste collected by refuse collection vehicles is compressed using compactors and transferred to large transport vehicles for delivery to incineration plants or final disposal sites. At the Nanbu Relay Center, approximately 43 tons of combustible waste per day are compressed and volume-reduced by using a compactor-container system before being transported to the Ken’ou-Kennan Clean Center.

The total contract value for construction and operation of the facility amounts to approximately 11.375 billion yen (excluding tax). MHIEC, in joint venture with MHI Group’s Jukan Operation Co., Ltd., has been entrusted with the 20-year operation and management of all three relay centers under a DBO(2) scheme.

MHIEC took over the waste treatment plant business in 2008, acquiring MHI’s technological development capabilities in environmental systems and broad-ranging expertise in the construction and operation of waste management facilities both in Japan and overseas. Based on this robust track record, MHIEC is well positioned to propose comprehensive solutions encompassing all aspects from plant construction to operation and maintenance. Beyond new facility development, MHIEC actively addresses after-sales services and DBO projects.

Moving forward, the Company will continue to promote proposals aimed at energy conservation, advanced incinerator operations through AI and IoT-enabled remote monitoring and automated support, and lifecycle cost reduction, thereby expanding its footprint both domestically and internationally.

(1) Relay centers are facilities where collected waste is compressed and transferred to larger transport vehicles for efficient delivery to incineration or disposal sites. For more details, please visit:

https://www.mhi.com/jp/products/environment/wastes-transfer-facility.html

(2) DBO stands for Design-Build-Operate. Under this scheme, public entities retain ownership of the facility while outsourcing its design, construction, and operation to private-sector partners.