Bioethanol Car Fuel Production Project to be Launched in Okinawa

An experiment to verify the feasibility of producing biomass fuel from high-biomass sugarcane will begin in January 2006, according to joint announcement of Asahi Breweries, Ltd., a major Japanese brewer, and the National Agricultural Research Center for Kyushu Okinawa Region (KONARC) released on August 4, 2005. The joint experiment will cover the whole process of biomass ethanol production from planting and harvesting sugarcane to using the fuel in cars.

Asahi Breweries and KONARC have been engaged in research and development of an efficient model to produce biomass ethanol from the residue of high-biomass sugarcane after extracting the sugar while maintaining normal amounts of sugar production per unit area.

This demonstration experiment is the second phase of their R&D project. They plan to harvest 30 tons of high-biomass sugarcane annually from a 50-are field in order to produce one kiloliter of biomass ethanol and two tons of sugar. Then a gasoline mixture containing about three percent biomass ethanol (E3 gasoline) will be used for official vehicles owned by Ie Village in Okinawa Prefecture.

The experiment will be conducted at Ie village, which lies on an isolated island with a circumference of 22.4 kilometers and a population of about 5,300, located west of the northern end of the main island of Okinawa. It is a part of the "Ie Biomass Island Project" being conducted by the village and other organizations including the Ie branch of the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives Okinawa, and in collaboration with the Japanese Cabinet Office and three ministries, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Ministry of the Environment.

http://www.asahibeer.co.jp/english/
http://www.naro.affrc.go.jp/index_en.html

Posted: 2005/11/25 10:33:45 PM
Japanese version