New Methane Fermentation Method Developed for Garbage-Herbaceous Composite

Nihonkai Gas Co., a Japanese gas supply company, announced on December 28, 2012, the launch of a joint project to develop a highly efficient methane fermentation technology using a composite material comprising garbage and herbaceous biomass. Two universities, including Kanazawa University, and two companies worked together with Nihonkai Gas as part of the project, which has acquired financial support from the Japanese Minister of the Environment to develop and test climate mitigation technologies.

Most garbage in Japan is disposed of by incineration, while Japan has vast potential in herbaceous biomass. To recover the energy from garbage and herbaceous biomass, which are both wasted now, the project aims to develop a new highly efficient methane fermentation method that is able to process garbage and herbaceous biomass. The new method adopts a combination of new technologies to: increase the degradation rate by applying pretreatments such as enlarging and softening; solubilize via sulfate reduction; and utilize microbes that show high cellulolytic activity. In addition, the process is a dry-type fermentation, and therefore does not require an effluent treatment facility.

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