On November 5, 2004 Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries cited 29 outstanding initiatives in biomass utilization to encourage the use of biomass from agriculture, forestry and fisheries industries. The year was the first time the Biomass Utilization Awards have been presented.

Chosen for the MAFF Minister's Prize were Kyoto City in Kyoto Prefecture for its promotion of biodiesel fuels, and Sony Corp. for its technology development and active promotion of biomass plastics.

Kyoto City has been collecting used cooking oil and recycling it as biodiesel to fuel garbage collection trucks and city buses since 1997. Moreover, because there were no national quality standards for biodiesel fuels at the time, the city established its own. The city built the nation's largest plant in June 2004 to meet these standards, able to generate fuel from used cooking oil. Working with the local community, it has succeeded in establishing a smoothly-functioning community-based system for the utilization of biomass.

Sony, in 2002, was the first company in the world to adopt bioplastics on a large scale, by using them in the casings of its home electronic products. and the company succeeded in 2004 in developing a flame-retardant vegetable-based plastic, as well as a molding technology for these materials.

- Kyoto City's Biodiesel Project Wins Minister's Award (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/db/920-e

Posted: 2005/03/04 10:06:40 AM
Japanese version

TAG Energy , Government , Local government , Manufacturing industry , Material reduction , System/Law , Technology