Test marketing of bio-gasoline, a blend of gasoline and bio-ethyl tertiary butyl ether (bio-ETBE), began on April 27, 2007, at 50 service stations in the Tokyo metropolitan area. Vehicles that run on bio-gasoline are expected to curb carbon dioxide emissions by up to 3 percent.

Bio-ETBE is produced by a chemical reaction between bioethanol and isobutylene. Bio-ETBE-blended gasoline can be used in the same way as conventional gasoline, and the gas mileage and price of the two fuels are almost the same. In response to the target achievement plan the Japanese Cabinet adopted in April 2006 to meet Japan's commitments under the Kyoto Protocol, oil companies will blend bioethanol equivalent to 210,000 kiloliters of crude oil, as bio-ETBE, with conventional gasoline from April 2010.

The bio-ETBE was shipped from France in February 2007 and arrived in Yokohama on April 6. It was blended with regular gasoline at the Nippon Oil Corp.'s refinery plant in Negishi near Tokyo to produce bio-gasoline containing 7 percent bio-ETBE. Ten oil distributors then delivered the bio-gasoline to 50 filling stations. Oil companies are planning to increase the number of service stations that sell bio-gasoline to about 100 in fiscal 2008 and to 1,000 in fiscal 2009 ahead of their planned nationwide sales of bio-ETBE-blended gasoline in fiscal 2010.

Meanwhile the Japanese Ministry of the Environment is undergoing a verification project to supply E3 gasoline, a blend of gasoline with 3 percent bioethanol.

http://www.paj.gr.jp/english/index.html
- Japan Adopts Action Plan to Achieve Kyoto Target (Related JFS article)
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- Japanese NGOs Appeal to Gov't for Sustainable Biofuel Use (Related JFS article)
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- Ministry of Environment to Promote Production of Enough Biofuel for 40,000 Cars (Related JFS article)
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- Commercial-Scale Wood-Based Ethanol Production Begins (Related JFS article)
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Posted: 2007/06/30 12:00:27 PM
Japanese version

TAG Energy , Government , Manufacturing industry