Fig . Future Plan for Bioethanol Supply

Japanese government has set a goal for domestic production/consumption of bioethanol, that will replace gasoline in the future, as 50,000 KL in FY2010, 1,000,000 KL in FY2020, and 3,800,000 KL in FY2030.

In order to drastically expand domestic bioethanol production, use of woody biomass is becoming attractive because it would not interfere with the production of agriculture foods or feeds. Rice straw, waste wood, sorghum grown on idle farmlands, as well as forest wood residue that is estimated as much as 8.5 million cubic-meter every year, these materials seem to be promising as sustainable raw materials in the future.

At Akita City, Akita prefecture, the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute(FFPRI) has been installing a bioethanol production proof plant that will utilize woody biomass. The plant has been completed and its celebration ceremony was held on 23 June 2009. Seven hundred million yen were spent for the plant that can produce 125 KL of ethanol annually. The development project for production technology of bioethanol from domestic woody biomass is promoted and funded by the Forestry Agency. Under general management and supervision of FFPRI, the project has been conducted jointly by Tokyo University, Waseda University, Akita Prefectural University, Akita Prefecture and Kita-Akita City. Various technical verification and plant improvement will be carried out during five years from FY2008 to FY2012.

Wood residue generated in cedar forests owned by Akita Prefecture and Kita-Akita City will be used as main raw material. First, alkaline pulping process using aqueous sodium hydroxide eliminates lignin from mashed wood. Then, “simultaneous saccharization-fermentation process” using enzyme and yeast will be adopted to produce bioethanol efficiently. The research team intends, within four years, to achieve a yield that will produce 250 liter of bioethanol from 1 ton of woody biomass, and also a production cost of 100 yen/liter.

Table Present as well as Long Term Supply Quantity of Bioethanol

Kind of Biomass		FY2010 supply	Long Term supply
Molasses（Okinawa）		0.07〜0.14	0.24〜0.48
Irregular wheat（Hokkaido）		0.58〜1.16	2.05〜4.09
Wood waste		0.42〜0.7	19〜39
Food Waste		0	5〜10
Resource crops	Minimum-access rice	3.57	3.57
	Rice straw	0	42〜84
	Reserve area (rice)	0	7.5〜15
	Idle farmland（sorghum）	0	15〜31
Forest wood residue		0	14〜24
Total		4.64〜5.57	108〜211

Source : "On Expanding Use of Biofuels in Transport", Biofuel Promotion Conference

Fig. Estimated Long-term Supply of Bioethanol in Japan

Cf. 1) Biomass Nippon General Strategy Promotion Conference : “Map of Domestic Biofuels Production Development Plan, Feb. 2007,　2) Forestry Agency : “Basic Policy for Organizing Domestic Lumber Industry System and Expanding Use of Domestic Lumber”(Feb. 2007),　3) Chemical Daily Newspaper,　4) Website of FFPRI

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