Kirin Brewery to Build Test Plant to Make Bioethanol

A leading Japanese brewer, Kirin Brewery Co., has decided to build an experimental bioethanol manufacturing plant at its Toride Plant in Toride City, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. It will be equipped with machines to continuously pulverize, liquefy, and ferment materials, and then distill the product to produce 15 kiloliters of bioethanol a year. Starting construction in autumn 2007, the company plans to begin operations before the end of the year.

In June 2007, Kirin joined a national model project to promote the regional use of biofuel in Tokachi District, Hokkaido, with a consortium led by Mitsubishi Corp. and joined by a company contracted to build a plant at Tokachi for the project (see website provided below). The purpose of Kirin's new plant is to test and verify the process of manufacturing bioethanol as planned out in the national project. Verification testing will be conducted over about 10 months after the plant is operational using the same materials that will be used later at the Tokachi plant, including sub-standard wheat, non-subsidized sugar beets, imported rice following the minimum access, and others.

Once testing is complete, Kirin plans to use the plant as an experimental plant for manufacturing cellulosic biofuel using the by-products of its beer manufacturing process, such as malt husks, brewing wastewater, and surplus yeast.


- Mitsubishi Corp. & Kirin Brewery to Build Bioethanol Plant in Hokkaido (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/db/1866-e

Posted: 2007/11/28 11:40:12 PM
Japanese version