ICM, Inc., a leading U.S. process technology provider for ethanol production, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI), a global engineering and technology leader, have entered into a strategic alliance to accelerate innovation in ethanol dehydration.
The collaboration focuses on integrating MHI’s Mitsubishi Membrane Dehydration System (MMDS™) with ICM’s bioethanol process design. Together, the companies aim to increase efficiency in ethanol production by reducing energy consumption, enhancing process reliability, and supporting the industry’s efforts to lower carbon intensity.
MHI recently achieved more than 99.5 vol.% ethanol purity using its MMDS™ at a pilot plant installed at the Nagasaki Carbon Neutral Park, located within the company’s Nagasaki District Research & Innovation Center. Early pilot results indicate a significant reduction in energy consumption compared to conventional dehydration methods. Further testing and validation are planned as both companies prepare for the next phase of development and commercial implementation.
To ensure the technology’s long-term performance and integration success, ICM and MHI are planning two key validation programs: a fouling test and a demonstration test. The fouling test will assess the membrane’s durability and resistance to impurities in the ethanol stream, ensuring stable operation over time. The demonstration test will validate full-scale performance in a production environment, confirming efficiency, reliability, and seamless integration within ICM’s process design.
Ethanol dehydration is one of the most energy-intensive steps in bioethanol production. By replacing the traditional Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) method with a molecular sieve separation method, MMDS™ enables high-efficiency manufacturing while significantly reducing energy use and operational costs. Because MMDS™ enables separation in the liquid phase, the system can also be designed more compactly, reducing the equipment footprint and simplifying installation.
“Through this collaboration with MHI, we’re exploring new approaches to ethanol dehydration that can further improve efficiency and reliability in ethanol production,” said Shaun Hubler, Director of Technology Commercialization at ICM, Inc. “The pilot results are very promising, and we look forward to building on them as we move toward full commercial deployment.”
“This partnership represents an important step toward realizing MHI’s vision for carbon-neutral industrial solutions,” stated Fumitaka Miyashige, Business Manager of MMDS™ project at MHI. “Working with ICM allows us to bring this advanced separation technology to the global renewable fuels market.”
Further testing is scheduled to begin in Q2 2026, marking an important step toward the technology’s first commercial installation. Both companies view this alliance as a long-term collaboration to advance efficiency, sustainability, and competitiveness of the global bioethanol industry.
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