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Report
No.240802 |
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- Domestic - |
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Japan's Government Aims to Expand Bio-fuel Production to 10% of Gasoline by 2030 Japan's Government Aims to Expand Bio-fuel Production to 10% of Gasoline by 2030 On February 22, "Biomass Japan Comprehensive Promotion Council", where competent authorities discuss a significant increase in the production of bio-ethanol in Japan, developed a schedule (plan) to achieve the government goal by 2030 of expanding its production to the amount that accounts for some 10% of gasoline consumption. Following this, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Toshikatsu Matsuoka informed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on February 27 of the schedule for the greatly increased production of bio-fuel in Japan. At present, the country produces some 30 kiloliters of bio-ethanol at validation test facilities while consuming 60 million kiloliters of gasoline a year. Toward the achievement of the goal, the government will work to pursue the cultivation of crops that are turned to the ethanol mainly through leveraging abandoned farm land. In addition, it will aim to raise the ratio of ethanol from the current 3 to 10% that is mixed with gasoline. The government, as a whole, will work together to develop domestic production and supply systems of ethanol with an aim to meet the 10% of gasoline demand, that is 6 million kiloliters (or around 3.60 million kilolitres in crude oil equivalent), so as to further actions against global warming. High-yielding crops, rice straws, scrap woods and others will be turned to ethanol. The institutional and technical challenges pointed out include the review of relevant laws and regulations for the raised mixture ratio as well as the increased development speed of the technology for the production cost reduction. The schedule contains an objective to keep the retail purchase price of ethanol-gasoline mixture around 100 yen per liter so as to maintain the price at the level equivalent to the regular gasoline. Excerpt from articles in the Japan Agricultural News and Yomiuri Shimbun on February 23, and in the Japan Agricultural News on February 28 |
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