Asahi Breweries, Ltd., one of Japan's major alcoholic beverage manufacturers, has developed high-yielding sugar cane as an energy source in cooperation with the National Agricultural Research Center for Kyushu Okinawa Region (KONARC), an independent administrative institution involved in research for the development of agricultural technologies. Asahi Breweries will start experiments to verify the feasibility of producing both sugar and fuel ethanol from the high-yielding sugarcane.

Undertaking joint research since 2002, the two organizations selected a high-yielding sugarcane appropriate for energy use. Dubbed "Monster Cane," it produces more than twice the amount of biomass compared with ordinary sugarcanes. When converted to organic waste it can be used as a source of fuel.

Starting in April 2004, Asahi Breweries will build a small pilot plant in its Engineering & Technology Development Laboratory of the R&D Headquarters and will start technological development for efficient ethanol production and verify the feasibility of the manufacturing process. The company aims to design the process to provide the energy needed for producing sugar and ethanol by burning bagasse, the fiber that remains after the extraction of the sugar-bearing juice from sugarcane. By eliminating the need for external energy sources, this process can maximize the level of biomass utilization per planted hectare. In the future, Asahi Breweries and KONARC aim to create a model of biomass energy use in Japan by using the ethanol manufactured in this process for automobile fuel and blending it with gasoline at a certain ratio .




Posted: 2004/04/23 11:31:13 AM
Japanese version

TAG Energy , Food/Water , Manufacturing industry , Technology , Transportation , University/Research institute