First Localized Biogas Business Launched in Japan

Japan's first renewable energy supply venture in the gas business was jointly launched in September 2007 by restaurant company Aleph Inc. (based in Sapporo, Hokkaido), Kanematsu Corp. (based in Tokyo), electrical engineering company DAI-DAN Co. (based in Osaka), and the Japan Research Institute (also based in Tokyo), it was announced on October 12, 2007.

The surplus biogas, generated by a biogas fermentation plant that processes livestock excrement on a farm in Chitose, Hokkaido, is produced with low-cost, highly efficient refining equipment, and then bottled in high-pressure cylinders for delivery to a food production factory belonging to Aleph Inc., the Bikkuri Donkey Hokkaido Factory, in the city of Eniwa.

The linkage between the local dairy farm and the local food factory has allowed the creation and consumption of locally sourced renewable energy from rarefied biomass, representing a valuable local production/local consumption model for renewable energy, which also contributes to the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions by an estimated 82 tons per year.

In addition, about 500 kilograms per day of raw garbage, such as vegetable scraps, generated by the Aleph factory is also processed into gas using the fermentation equipment and then used as fuel in the factory. As livestock excrement is not the only possible source of biogas, and the same technology can be applied to sewage sludge and other food waste, the four companies are planning to use this project as a stepping-stone for the expansion of their small-scale biogas supply business.

http://www.jri.co.jp/english/press/press_html/2007/071012.html
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http://www.japanfs.org/db/1088-e

Posted: 2008/01/24 10:12:46 PM
Japanese version