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Innovation on Production and Automotive Utilization of Biofuels from Non-food Biomass

Bioresources

Kingdom of Thailand

Finished

Innovation on Production and Automotive Utilization of Biofuels from Non-food Biomass

Reducing CO₂ Emissions with Vehicle Biofuel Made from Nonedible Vegetable Oil

Principal Investigator

- Emeritus Researcher/Invited Senior Researcher, Dr.
  YOSHIMURA Yuji
  Department of Energy and Environment, Research Institute of Energy Frontier, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)

ODA Recipient Country

Kingdom of Thailand

Research Institutions in Japan

National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) / Waseda University

Research Institutions in Counterpart Country

National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) / Thailand Institute of Scientific and Technological Research (TISTR) / King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok (KMUTNB)

Adoption fiscal year

FY 2009

Research Period

5 Years

Overview of the Research Project

Using Non-food biomass as a biofuel feedstock that does not compete with food crops
The utilization of biofuels in the transportation sector could help to mitigate global warming, but because of the risk that production of biofuels derived from grains or vegetable oil will compete with food crops, there is a demand for manufacturing technologies that exploit nonfood sources of biofuel. For this project we are cooperating with Thailand, which is the Asian automotive production hub, to develop the production technologies of fuels from non-food biomass (Jatropha as a major feedstock), an inedible plant. We are also conducting engine tests and developing the automotive utilization technologies, as well as estimating CO₂ emission reduction benefits through life cycle assessments.

Demonstrating automobile compatibility of high quality biodiesel through on-road tests
We performed on-road testing in Thailand (total 50,000 km) using biodiesel manufactured from Jatropha oil that is compliant with East Asia Summit biodiesel quality recommendations, mixed into mineral diesel at a 10 vol% inclusion rate (B10). The tests successfully demonstrated the automobile compatibility of the high quality biodiesel ("H-FAME") manufactured by the project.