Iwatani completed the long-awaited expansion of LCO2 plant at IIG Chiba Plant (Ichihara City, Chiba) and started operation on a commercial base on June 1.

　The plant produces liquid carbon dioxide and dry ice using the raw material of by-product gas from Cosmo Oil Chiba Refinery.

The capital investment at this time is intended to upgrade its supply capacity in the midst of chronic shortage in the crude gas for liquid carbon due to the shrinkage in demand for petrochemical products. The output capacity of LCO2 has been doubled to 86,000 tons per year making the total storing capacity up to 1100 tons.