Sep 16, 2026

Mitsubishi UBE Cement Corporation (MUCC, Head Office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President: Hideki Kato) and Ube Material Industries, Ltd. (Head Office: Ube City, Yamaguchi Prefecture; President: Yoshiaki Ito), an MUCC Group company, have jointly been awarded a contract by the Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security (JOGMEC) to conduct a study [1] for the Ube Cluster project as part of its FY2026 public offering for “Design Work for Separation, Capture, Liquefaction, Temporary Storage, and Shipping Facilities for Ship-Based Advanced Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Projects.”

The Japanese government aims to achieve carbon neutrality, with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, by 2050. The Seventh Strategic Energy Plan identifies carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) as an effective way to reduce carbon emissions in materials industries, such as cement, where electrification and hydrogen alone are not enough to achieve decarbonization. CCUS is meanwhile considered essential for achieving a stable energy supply, economic growth, and decarbonization all at once.

MUCC has conducted conceptual design work for CO₂ separation, capture, temporary storage, and shipping facilities for CO₂ emitted from the cement production facilities at Yamaguchi Plant Ube District (Ube City, Yamaguchi Prefecture) under the Advanced CCS Project (CCS Project for the Southern Offshore Malay Peninsula) [2][3], and continues to assess the commercialization of CCS.

The scope of the project is to examine the design of facilities for separating and capturing CO₂ emitted from cement and magnesia production in the Ube industrial complex in Yamaguchi Prefecture, as well as for facilities for liquefying, storing, and shipping the captured CO₂. The two companies will jointly undertake the separation, capture, liquefaction, and temporary storage of CO₂ emitted from MUCC Yamaguchi Plant Ube District and Ube Material Industries First Plant (Ube City, Yamaguchi Prefecture), and its handover to the transport operator. Based on these activities they will verify the necessary technical requirements and the associated estimate costs.

Through this study, the MUCC Group will explore the early deployment of CCS and pursue new initiatives in collaboration with local governments and other industries, while taking on new challenges and striving to lead the industry’s efforts to achieve carbon neutrality.

References

[1] “Selection of Emitter Clusters for Advanced CCS Projects with Maritime Transport — Advancing Cost Reduction Through Regional Aggregation of CO₂ from Multiple Sources,” JOGMEC, June 24, 2026

[2] “Advanced Efforts for Commercialization of CCS — JOGMEC Selects Nine Projects as Japanese Advanced CCS Projects,” JOGMEC, June 28, 2024

[3] “Commissioning of FY2024 ‘Engineering Design Work for Advanced CCS Projects (CCS Project for the Southern Offshore Malay Peninsula),’” MUCC, October 10, 2024

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