Bio-Fuel Production Technologies from Ligno-cellulosic Biomass and Asian Biomass Strategy <Report>

Biomass is a renewable and carbon neutral resource, because it can fix carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by photosynthesis. Recently, it is getting more attractive as alternative fuel resources from the viewpoint of global warming mitigation and fossil resource saving. However, in Japan, biomass resources are very limited and dispersive energy in terms of their sustainable production and utilization. Therefore, more intensive and concentrating research and development are required to convert biomass into energy at the higher efficiency.

Biomass Technology Research Center (BTRC) of AIST has been conducting the technical developments and organizing the social system for biomass utilization to establish a sustainable society not only in Japan but also in the world in terms of the three important targets, which are described as follows; 1) Ethanol production from woody biomass; 2) Biomass to Liquids(BTL) process, and 3) Study on Biomass Total System.

Research activities of BTRC are reviewed in terms of the priority projects on ethanol fermentation from woody biomass through mechanochemical and/or hydrothermal refining pretreatments, BTL(biomass to liquids) by clean gasification, F-T synthesis and catalytic upgrading reactions, and the evaluation of total biomass system by simulation. Especially, feasible utilization technologies of woody biomass resources are most important projects from the viewpoints of CO2 reduction, because their amounts are abundant in Japan and Asian countries, and the woody biomass resources not only contribute to the substitution of fossil fuels such as coal and crude oil, but also considerably reduce the CO2 emission due to their carbon neutrality and deliberate plantation for their sustainable utilization.