Asahi Breweries and KONARC Develop Combined Sugar/Bioethanol Production Process

Pilot plant for bioethanol production test
Copyright Asahi Breweries, Ltd.

A major Japanese beverage company, Asahi Breweries, Ltd., and the National Agricultural Research Center for Kyushu Okinawa Region (KONARC) announced on April 13, 2010, that they have developed a combined sugar/bioethanol production process for the mass production of bioethanol by using a new variety of sugarcane that produces the same amount of sugar as conventional methods. They succeeded in making more than five-fold the amount of bioethanol per cultivated field by using the new sugarcane, and producing 50 percent more biomass and yielding 30 percent more sugar, compared to the conventional cultivar used for sugar production.

While the conventional method requires three crystallization processes to separate sugar crystals from molasses in order to extract a sufficient amount of sugar, the newly developed process yields about the same amount of sugar with a single crystallization process, due to the increased amount of sugar ingredients in the higher biomass sugarcane. Then the high sugar-content molasses, produced using only one crystallization process, can be used as an ingredient for ethanol to produce a large amount of bioethanol.

This study started through the combination of Asahi Breweries' fermentation and ethanol extraction technology and KONARC's high-biomass sugarcane-breeding technology. They intend to improve their technologies and bring them to the level of practical use over the next two years through technical verification of the combined sugar/bioethanol production process.

Bioethanol Car Fuel Production Project to be Launched in Okinawa (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/026133.html
High-yielding Sugarcane Developed as Energy Source (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/025565.html

Asahi Breweries, Ltd. official website
http://www.asahibeer.co.jp/english/

Posted: 2010/07/11 06:00:15 AM