Japan's Transport Ministry Promotes Biofuel Vehicles

The Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport launched a biofuel project in June 2004 as a measure to prevent global warming. The project involves efforts to promote the development of an engine that could operate on diesel blended with a highly concentrated biofuel and a vehicle that runs on this engine. The ministry has set up a project team and plans to build a prototype biodiesel vehicle within two years. It will be assessed for durability, exhaust emissions and safety.

At its first meeting, the project team formulated a master plan for developing the prototype, and set numerical targets to reach by March 2006. The plan's aim is to reduce the amount of nitrogen oxide in exhaust emissions to less than half, and particulate matter to less than one-fourth, of the latest long-term regulations. It also looks to maintain the same level of fuel efficiency and other performance measures as conventional diesel vehicles.

Biofuel is considered to be a "carbon neutral" substitute for fossil fuels, as the net impact on carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere is supposedly zero. One concern about biofuels, however, is the environmental and safety impacts have not yet been fully evaluated when 100-percent biofuel or highly blended biofuels are used in conventional diesel cars.

This project is expected to identify the technologies necessary to meet environmental and safety requirements of biodiesel vehicles, and also to promote their development and popularization.



Posted: 2004/11/09 01:49:03 PM
Japanese version