Minamata Plans to Be 'Biomass Town

Minamata City of Kumamoto Prefecture in southern Japan, announced on March 31, 2006 that it plans to attain a high rate of biomass resource utilization in the city. Aiming to become a "Biomass Town," the city plans to use more than 92 percent of waste biomass and more than 40 percent of unused biomass, focusing on the utilization of wood biomass and livestock waste.

With regard to unused wood biomass among forestry and construction-derived waste, high-quality thinned wood will be cut up and commercialized, bent wood and stumps will be made into oriented strand board (OSB), and the rest will be used as fuel for generating power, which will be used for manufacturing OSB, with any surplus electricity being sold to a power company. Spin-off heat and steam will be used for drying and heat pressing the OSB.

After solid-liquid separation of livestock waste, useful ingredients will be collected from the liquid matter using the conducting dialysis fermentation systems installed at each farm. The condensed liquid obtained in this process will be returned to the soil as liquid fertilizer. The remaining liquid will be used for cleaning livestock barns or released into a river.

The city has been collecting household waste sorted by citizens into 21 categories since 1993, composting all food waste, and has achieved a 20 percent reduction in waste volume. According to the announcement, the city plans to start OSB manufacturing and biomass power generation in fiscal 2006-07, and livestock waste treatment in fiscal 2009.



- Thirteen 'Biomass Towns' Designated (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/db/1041-e

Posted: 2006/07/06 10:40:07 PM
Japanese version