Honda to build 2nd bioethanol lab

Honda Motor Co. will build a new research facility for its research and development (R&D) arm, Honda R&D Co. Ltd., within the Kazusa Akademia Park in Kisarazu, Chiba Prefecture in Japan. Construction of the 1,050 square meter facility, which will be built at an undisclosed cost, will start on April 2009 and is slated to begin operations in November 2009. The facility will focus its research on the production of ethanol from inedible plant parts such as stems and leaves and inedible cellulosic materials such as rice straw. The facility will be the company’s second laboratory in Japan, with the first being located in Saitama prefecture in the eastern part of the country. (February 27, 2009)