In order to make consistent policy recommendations on interrelated various energy issues, the systematization of energy policy studies will be required. In this review, first the current situations of publication and education of energy policy studies are surveyed for reference. No book with the title of "energy policy studies" has ever been published in Japan. Quite a few Japanese universities offer courses on energy policy studies at undergraduate or graduate level. Then those of environmental policy studies, which is one of the neighboring areas to energy policy studies, are surveyed. As for environmental policy studies, introductory books have already been published in Japanese and many Japanese universities offer undergraduate and graduate level courses. Referring to the systematization of environmental policy studies in publication and education, energy policy studies can be systematized as the combination of four approaches: a) historical approach, b) policy area approach, c) policy tool approach, and d) research technique approach.

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In order to control ash deposition on heat exchanger tubes in coal or woody biomass combustion boilers, surface treatment of the tubes, using a thermal spraying technique, was proposed in this study. The ash deposition mechanisms were elucidated, based on physical and chemical aspects, under the condition of long exposure period. First, adhesive force (S_b) between ash and alloy surface at high temperature was measured. As the physical aspect, S_b increased with an increase of the exposure time and could be predicted by an improved logistic function. Moreover, S_b depended on the temperature, so that an interface reaction controlled the increasing rate of adhesive force. As the chemical aspect, the interface between the ash deposition and alloy was observed and analyzed by a SEM-EDS and a FE-EPMA to consider the mechanisms of an increase of the adhesive force. The result showed that S and Na contained in the ash composition diffused into the alloy and that Fe mainly composing of the alloy specimens also diffused into the ash deposition. The diffusion coefficient of Fe into the ash deposition was also calculated by the results of a point elemental analysis. These results suggested that the interfacial reactions of the ash particles with the alloy affected the increase of adhesive force.

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In this work, to analyze a travel behavior by providing environmental information using ICT (Information and Communication Technology), we investigated the following issues. At first, we selected an information device and a method to provide environmental information efficiently by using web-based questionnaires. In addition, we analyzed the importance of environmental information in the selection of a transport route by using conjoint analysis. We developed a transport route guidance system that provided the duration, fare and amount of CO₂ emission related to six transport routes from Hamamatsucho station to Tokyo Big Sight, and conducted a demonstration experiment providing transport information via mobile phones to actual respondents. As a result, it was confirmed that the respondents changed their travel behavior significantly by providing the transport information. The ratio of the transport route selected, based on the transportation image, was large without using the guidance system, and they tended to decide on their transport route based on the fare retrieved from the guidance system. It was suggested that an ICT service that includes environmental information would encourage transport users to choose a transport route in consideration of the environment, because 11% of the respondents selected their transport route by referring to environmental information.

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Carbonization behavior of the mixture of woody biomass and black liquor was investigated. By means of co-pyrolysis of cedar and black liquor, the evolved amount of tar and H2O was depressed by the effect of sodium compounds. As a result, H2 gas evolved increased, the amount reached 1/3 of the total content of hydrogen atom included in biomass and the evolution peak shifted to the 450 °C, being ca. 300 °C lower than that by cedar pyrolysis.

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