Top: PlaWave’s
demonstration facility.
Left: Decomposed oil(left), recovered styrene
monomer (center), andrecycled polystyrene(right) were all
chemically recycledusing PlaWave’s small
pilot unit.

THE MICROWAVE TECHNOLOGY TURNING THE

CHEMICAL INDUSTRY
GREEN
Chemical products that are essential in today’s manufacturing require hugeamounts of energy to produce. Now, an ambitious new startup company,
Microwave Chemical Co., Ltd., has built the world’s first chemical mass
production plant that uses microwaves, leading the way in the green
transformation (GX) of the chemical industry.
In today’s world, chemically derived products
such as plastics and synthetic fibers are indispensable
to manufacturing in a wide variety of fields. The
chemical reactions that are used in their production
often require heating at high temperatures.
Consequently, the chemical industry consumes a lotof energy, accounting for about 30% of the entire
industrial sector’s total energy consumption. The
chemical industry is also a big CO2 emitter, making
the green transformation (GX) an urgent issue.
Founded in 2007, Microwave Chemical Co.,
Ltd. is a startup company that brings innovation toproduction processes in the chemical industry. By
more accurately controlling the same technologies
as those used in microwave ovens, the company aims

The world’s first microwave chemical mass production plant
was completed in 2014.

to bring about the GX of chemical manufacturing
processes.
Conventionally, substances within a chemical
reactor—an enclosed container where chemicalreactions take place—are heated through steam orother means. With this method, heat is transferredindirectly from an external heat source throughthe reactor to the substance inside, so it takes time
for the whole substance to be heated. In contrast,
microwaves transmit heat directly to the substance at
the molecular level, doing so quickly and at a uniform
temperature, targeting only the intended subject andnothing else. Since the microwave method can createchemical reactions more efficiently, it is possible tosave energy and reduce the size of equipment.

Companies introducing this method have successfully
reduced their energy consumption by up to 70%.
The use of microwaves on an industrial scale has
previously been considered impossible due to thedifficulty of controlling microwaves. However,through long-term research, Microwave Chemical
has established unique technologies in its reaction
system design to find the optimum frequency andamount of energy input by measuring the degree towhich various reactants absorb microwaves, as wellas its reactor design to ensure that microwaves work
both safely and efficiently without leakage, thereby
paving the way for their industrial use. The company
began shipping chemically derived products
produced using the microwave process in 2012,
and in 2014 completed the world’s first microwave
chemical mass production plant.
Besides joint projects with chemical manufacturers,
the company has also been collaborating withcompanies in an assortment of fields, such as steel,glass, and pharmaceuticals. “Just as there are huge
platform providers in the IT field, at Microwave
Chemical we aim to be a platform provider for
manufacturing technologies. This is something thathas become one of our strengths. The more problems
we solve for customers, the more technology
we accumulate, and the more we can solve problems
that were previously unsolvable, thereby creatinga virtuous cycle,” said co-founder and CEO
YOSHINO Iwao.
One of the platforms provided by Microwave

Chemical that is attracting attention is PlaWave, achemical recycling technology platform that uses
microwaves in the chemical recycling process todecompose used plastics at high temperatures andreturn them to oil and chemical raw materials forreuse. Being a solid material, plastic is difficult toheat efficiently using conventional methods, as these
involve indirect heating using hot air, but microwaves
are well suited to the task since they can transmit
energy directly. Microwave Chemical is now carryingout demonstrations of its PlaWave concept withmultiple companies, mainly chemical manufacturers,
with the aim of commercializing chemical recycling.
“The Japanese government’s 2020 pledge to becarbon neutral by 2050 was a huge tailwind for ourcompany. Manufacturing technology such as ours isJapan’s strength, which is why we want to make every
effort to put it into practice moving forward,” said
OKUNAKA Mao, a spokesperson for Microwave
Chemical.
“I believe that our technology can contribute tocarbon neutrality in a plethora of areas. For example,
in the case of electric vehicles, not only do microwaves
reduce carbon emissions during the manufacturingprocess but they also keep down power consumption
in the process of dissolving and smelting lithium—the battery material—from ore,” stated Yoshino.
Benefiting from the versatility of microwaves,which can save energy in all kinds of heat treatment
processes, Microwave Chemical aims to apply
its technology not only to the field of chemical
manufacturing, but to many others too.

YOSHINO Iwao (left), CEO of Microwave Chemical Co., Ltd., andOKUNAKA Mao (right), the company’s public relations manager.