The Japanese Government decided to introduce bio-fuel for automobiles as one of CO2 emission reduction measures for the entire country. To be specific, the bio-fuel equivalent to 500,000 kl of crude oil will be introduced as fuel for transportation in 2010, of which 210,000 kl will be introduced by the petroleum industry of Japan.

Currently, the following 3 types of use are developed for the bio-fuel for automobile in Japan.

1. Use of ETBE (Ethyl Tertiary Butyl Ether) mixed with gasoline
2. Use of bio-ethanol mixed with gasoline
3. Use of bio-diesel fuel mixed with light oil

The oil industry is promoting the introduction of bio-gasoline mixed with 1 to 8% ETBE and it has implemented the demonstration business since 2007. ETBE, which is produced by synthesizing bio-ethanol and isobutene, is planned to be increased to 200,000 kl of ETBE in fiscal 2009 and 840,000 kl in fiscal 2010. The 840,000 kl of ETBE is equivalent to 210,000 kl of crude oil.

On May 29, 2009, Nippon Oil Corporation announced that it would sell the bio-gasoline as regular gasoline at 861 gas stations in Tokyo and 6 prefectures (Kanagawa Prefecture, Yamanashi Prefecture, Saitama Prefecture, Nagano Prefecture, Gunma Prefecture, and Tochigi Prefecture) from June 1, 2009. Nippon Oil Corporation trially sold the bio-gasoline at 13 gas stations in fiscal 2007 and 30 gas stations in fiscal 2008. In fiscal 2009, it will greatly increase the number of gas stations to 861, thus fully introducing the bio-fuel. 861 gas stations account for more than 40% of about 2,000 gas stations of Nippon Oil Corporation in Tokyo and 6 prefectures. This will be the first large-scale sales in Japan.

Nippon Oil Corporation will introduce 47,000 kl of ETBE in fiscal 2009. This will reduce the CO2 emission by 30,000 tons per year.　In fiscal 2008, while Japan imported 50,000 kl of bio-ethanol including ETBE, the domestic production was only 1,300 kl, which reveals a 97% dependence on imports.

Fig　Bio ETBE Input (Target) by Petroleum Association of Japan

Fig　Number of Bio-Gasoline Sales Sation by Nippon Oil Corporation

Cf: Mainichi Newspapers, Website of Petroleum Association of Japan , Bio-Fuel Sustainability Research Society data (April, 2009), Website of Nippon Oil Corporation , etc.

• Synthesizing DME (Dimethyl Ether) from wooden biomass
• Introducing wooden biomass fuel facility of the largest scale for co-firing generation of coal and wooden biomass
• Nippon Oil Corporation started the full-scale sales of ETBE-mixed bio-gasoline
• New energy power by the RPS law increased 1.83 times in 5 years
• The Indonesian government doubled the dissemination subsidy for bio-fuel in fiscal 2010
• As for energy consumed in Vietnam, the biomass energy accounts for 46%
• Biotech Park (Bioxcell) will be constructed in Malaysia