Alliance to develop cheaper cellulosic ethanol

Toyota Motor Corp., Nippon Oil Corp., Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and other Japanese firms said they plan to jointly develop technologies to produce cellulosic ethanol from non-food plants. The six, also including Kajima Corp., Sapporo Engineering Ltd. and Toray Industries Inc., plan to establish a body that will lead their joint research and development efforts at the University of Tokyo, which will also take part in the project. By bringing together their expertise in such fields as plant cultivation, glycation and fermentation, the companies hope to develop a comprehensive production system and bring down production costs to around ¥40 (US$0.41) per liter by 2015, which would make bioethanol more competitive with oil. (February 23, 2009)