Japan gives grants to biofuel pilot plants

The Japanese government has approved a pilot project which will produce 1,000 kiloliters per year of ethanol from unused rice paddies in Niigata, northwestern Japan, under a new initiative, following enactment of the country’s Organism as Raw Materials for Biofuel Act on October 1, 2008, to expand domestic biofuel output to 3.6 million kiloliters per year (62,036 barrels per day) of crude oil equivalent by 2030. The pilot project is run by the National Federation of Agricultural Co-operative Associations and is scheduled to start production in February 2009. Earlier, the government also approved a pilot project, which is a joint venture by a unit of Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. and an agricultural public corporation led by the prefectural government of Akita in northern Japan. The government has set aside ¥3.2 billion (US$35.5 million) for fiscal year 2008 which ends in March 2009 to support pilot biofuel projects with a daily output of up to 1,000 liters. (December 11, 2008)