A new high-rise building with a recycling system

Takenaka Corp., one of Japan’s general constructors, will build a new high-rise building in Osaka. It will be Japan’s highest building when it is completed in 2014. It is 300 meters high and 60-storied, and it is equipped with a system to recycle food scraps and discharged water. Using pipes with a length of 400 meters, the system produces biogases from food scraps coming from restaurants inside the building and uses them for air-conditioning and hot-water supply. The company developed the urban biogas system in collaboration with an environment solution company. The recycling system sends food scraps produced by restaurants to the basement using the pipes and process them in the fermenter to make methane gases. And the gases will be used for the cogeneration system and boilers. The discharged water from hotel rooms and bathrooms will also be reused. The new building is scheduled to discharge three tons of food scraps daily, and the daily amount of discharged water is scheduled at 700 tons from restaurants and 550 tons from bathrooms. The biogas system will generate electricity equivalent to the amount consumed by 100 households. This self-contained building will supposedly grow widespread in the future.