No. 4: Growing moves to develop bioethanol using nonfood raw materials (September 16, 2011)

There are growing moves to start substantiative experiments of bioethanol using nonfood raw materials. The Japanese government set a goal to produce 500,000 kiloliters biofuel of oil equivalent annually in 2017, but Japan has the capacity to produce only 200,000 kiloliters biofuel at present. The major raw materials currently the Japanese government plans for biofuel are corns and sugarcanes, but the development of inexpensive raw materials are vital because grain market prices are going high these days.

The Research Association of Innovative BioethanolTechnology, founded by six companies including JX Nippon Oil & Energy, Toyota, and Toray, will build experiment plants next spring to produce fuel by fermenting sugar content extracted from such raw materials as gramineous plant Erianthus with an investment of about one billion yen. Oji Paper and NipponSteel Engineering will build experiment equipment inside one of Oji’s plants with an investment of one billion yen. They use lumbers and wood residues unusable as raw materials of pulp. It is an urgent task to diversify the raw materials for biofuel in Japan.