Mitsubishi plans drive on biofuels output

Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp. aims to take a slice of the growing green fuel market with a planned annual 2 million kiloliters of green ethanol output capacity by 2017, a senior manager said. The new plants will be in Japan and other parts of Asia, such as Thailand, where supply of feedstock is cheap and ample, said Takashi Miyazaki, a general manager at Mitsubishi’s new energy business unit. Global demand for biomass ethanol is set to leap to 280 million kiloliters a year by 2030, boosted by policy incentives and new technology cutting production costs. Mitsubishi in April set up a team of 15 people to produce and market the three types of green fuel — biomass ethanol, biomass diesel and biomass pellets — in Japan and abroad. (August 16, 2007)