In order to reduce harvesting costs of forest biomass resources, a new carriage for turn back yarding system is examined. The new carriage for turn back yardign system has two carriages with loading equipments. This yarding system could reduce yarding time to about half. When yarding speed and setup time assumed to be increase by 1.5 times, the estimated yarding cost of a tower yarder with the new carriage is less than that of a tower yarder over 200 m at thinning and 80 m at clearcutting. When this yarding system as well as swing yarders which have been widely spread out in Japan recently, are applied to a model area, harvesting costs reduced 16,706 yen/ton to 14,178 yen/ton. Subsequently, the electricity cost of the direct combustion power generation with 5 MW reduced 21.9 yen/kWh to 20.3 yen/kWh.

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BDF (FAME) systems of today have many problems such as competition with food-demand, limit of fat & oil-resources, liquid waste from the factory, etc. Many alternative BDF-fuels have been proposed, but insufficient to solve the problems. We had better return to SVO, with more efforts of improvements of Diesel engine system in order to apply the SVO.

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CRIEPI developed the web based database on quantities of biomass available in the 21 Asian regions for promoting global warming prevention by the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol. We classified biomass into 13 categories of 4 types (estate crops, crops excepted estate crops, livestock farms and saw mills). The database converted to maps of the Google Earth format is available on the web for facilitating utilization by CDM planner.

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Indonesia sets a nation's plan to expand the use of biofuels by 3% in 2015 and 5% in 2025, because biofuel industry expands domestic fuel supply and opportunity of employment. On-site energy production from biomass is important for rural community, especially for remote area. However, we should keep attention about the prospect that fuel ethanol and biodiesel will become global market products like crude oil. This means that commercial exploitation of biomass plantation just for pursuit of company's and nation's interest may cause negative impacts such as deforestration, decrease in biodiversity, changes in regional cultures, and limitation of forest utilization rights for local communities. To control the use of land, biomass and human resources for the new industry, international, regional and local framework is necessary.

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The production of light fuel gases by catalytic gasification of sewage sludge at low temperatures was investigated. Gasification of sludge was carried out at the temperature range of 773-973K with two stage fixed-bed reactor in argon atmosphere. Ni/Al_2O_3 and LY-Ni were used in this work. When the nickel catalyst was used, tarry materials and NH_3,HCN were remarkably decomposed, and the yield of the gas increased. The main component of product gas was hydrogen. The reforming of tarry materials and nitrogen compound progressed at temperature as low as 973K using Ni-catalyst.

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Tar that is generated in the biomass gasification process is currently the most difficult problem to solve. Gasification of tar by catalytic steam reforming was examined in a biomass gasification process. The tar reforming characteristics of the newly-developed Ni based catalyst was investigated for the gasification of a biomass of wood chips. The results of these experiments have confirmed that the newly-developed catalyst showed a high tar conversion activity, and is stable even in a gas containing hydrogen sulfide, also enable to achieve high cold gas efficiency and carbon conversion ratio.

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Biomass gasification has recently been recognized as one of the candidate technologies to utilize the biomass effectively. In this study, pellets of black pine are gasified in a packed-bed gasifier, using air as the gasification agent. In the gasification tests, the temperature distribution in the gasifier and the compositions in the gasified gas are measured and analyzed during gasification by thermo-couples and a micro gas chromatograph, respectively. Fundamental gasification characteristics in the packed-bed were discussed by those results obtained.

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Utilization of dry biomass is discussed from the point of gasification, mechanical and electric power generation. The situation of biomass utilization varies greatly depending upon the socio-economic conditions as well as availabilities of the technologies. Thus the present conditions in the Philippines, Thailand and Myanmar appear to be very different reflecting the levels of economic growth of their own countries. In any case the efficiency of energy system is going to be even more important in the future because of the increased concerns of fuel price as well as global environment.

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Due to human activities on the mass-production, mass-consumption and mass-waste, environmental issues such as global warming and acid rain became increasingly serious in the world. In such environmental situations, biomass resources, which are renewable, carbon-neutral and remarkably massive in amount on the earth, are getting important as an alternative of fossil resources. For the chemical conversion of biomass resources, on the other hand, supercritical fluid has recently received an attention as a new reaction field due to its unique properties. In this paper, therefore, current progress in research and development for environmentally benign supercritical fluid technologies is introduced as one of the approaches for biorefineries from biomass resources.

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Nickel- and iron-catalyzed carbonizations of wood tar at 900℃ were performed to examine the simultaneous production of hydrogen-rich gas and functional carbon. Results obtained confirmed the feasibility at a small loading of 1% nickel or 1.5% iron. Influence of carrier gas, heating rate, metal loading, and the loading method were also evaluated.

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Lignin is supposed to be utilized as an energy source in paper mills and bioethanol industries. However, we recognize it very important to utilize lignin as a bio-material for a longer period than cellulose and hemicellulose because lignin decomposes slowly to CO_2 in the real ecosystem. Phase-separation system is a process based on solvation of lignocellulosic materials by phenol derivatives and the following swelling and hydrolysis of carbohydrate by concentrated acid. Cellulose and hemicellulose are hydrolysed to sugars and lignin is converted to a light-colored functional phenolic polymer (lignophenol). Differently from various kinds of conventional lignins, lignophenol is organic-solvent soluble, flows at a low temperature and its structures are controllable. Since lignin is the only promising renewable source of aromatic compounds, lignophenol should be used with successive control of the structures and functions and then finally converted to simple aromatics for chemical industries. In this presentation, we would show a strategic way to utilize lignocellulosic resources through phase-separation system, and the recent experimental data on the conversion of lignophenol to monophenols under hydrothermal conditions.

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Glycerol hydrogenolysis was catalyzed by Pt/WO_3/ZrO_2 to give 1,3-propanediol (1,3-PD) in the yields up to 24 %. The catalytic activities and the selectivity toward 1,3-PD were remarkably affected by the type of support, loaded noble metal (NM) and the preparation/impregnation procedure. Controlled experiments show that the active site of catalyst for the formation of 1,3-PD may be the Pt over WO_3 supported on ZrO_2.

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[in Japanese]

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Cellulose saccharification is the most important core-technology for biomass conversion and effective utilization. Recently, acid hydrolysis processes that have already been put to practical use, however, it's not satisfactory in terms of profitability owing to several technical problems. Therefore, in order to develop another process, we have performed several fundamental experiments by using cellulose microcrystalline. In the case of a 5mL scale, hydrolysis by hot compressed-water at 260℃ showed a saccharification ratio (hydrolysis conversion of cellulose to glucose) of only 15%, but improved to 25% by addition of a small amount of acetic acid and substitution of the internal air of reaction pipe to nitrogen gas.

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Selective delignification of pulverized woody biomass was achieved by its autoxidation in ethanol at 130〜160℃. While ethanol alone is readily oxidized with oxygen at these temperatures to give diethyl acetal, ethyl acetate, methane, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, carbon dioxide and so on, the presence of antioxidants such as lignin, lignin model compounds, or lignin containing materials suppresses its oxidation to some extent and the antioxidants themselves are preferably oxidized. The saccharification of the pulp resulting from the delignification of pulverized spruce yielded more than 50 % of monosaccharides based on the dry raw material. The same oxidation of spruce but in water led to its carbonization: dehydration, probably because of the much smaller solubility of oxygen in water than in ethanol or the lack of autoxidation itself.

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We have identified calcium oxide as a solid base catalyst for biodiesel production with environmental benignity, but the neutralizing reaction with free fatty acids is a technical hurdle to put the solid base catalyst to practical use. In this paper, removal of free fatty acids by esterification with methanol over acidic solid are studied using H-Y zeolite, sulfated titanium oxide, and cation-exchange resin. Among the employed materials, only cation-exchange resin was appropriate for catalyzing the esterification in used cooking oil. As a result, we found a possibility that the acid-catalyzed esterification could be utilized as the pretreatment of the feedstock for releasing calcium oxide from the catalytic deterioration

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The study evaluates the possibilities of biomass energy systems and assesses energy conversion technologies. Two simulations using the linear programming were run for the optimization, utilizing a model which considers biomass utilization and energy convention technologies. We showed that some biomass technologies have economic advantages against conventional processing fees.

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Three bio-ethanol production processes from lingo-cellulose, saccharification using concentrated sulfuric acid, using diluted sulfuric acid and enzyme, and combination of milling pretreatment and enzymatic saccharification, were selected, and designed to estimate material and energy balance. The process of combination of milling pretreatment and enzymatic saccharification shows the potential of the highest ethanol yield. The process of saccharification using concentrated sulfuric acid requires the lowest process energy. For the process of combination of milling pretreatment and enzymatic saccharification, the milling using disk-mill decreases drastically the milling energy rather than using ball-mill, and the required process energy is even as the other processes. The rough ethanol production costs are discussed.

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Biomass utilization has several barriers such as collecting and unsteady quality. To overcome these issues and promote economical utilization, biomass feedstock should be standardized in relation to conversion technologies. We present a scheme of standardization and a new policy-making method for establishing biomass utilization system.

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The paper considers the condition for making a go of the sustainable business by using local woody biomass from the view points of stock and flow, and consistency of different organizations.

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In this study we searched for willow clones good for biomass production in short-rotation coppice in the southern part of Tohoku area. Eight clones of 4 willow species were gathered from Tohoku and Hokkaido area and cultivated in pots and on farmland near Sendai. After three years of cultivation and examination of productivity, we could select two clones, Salix sachalinensis SENI and S. pseudolinearis FXM, as willow plants with good performance and biomass production in the short-rotation coppice.

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This study deals with understanding the pyrolysis decomposition mechanism of newspaper and its conversion into environmentally friendly gaseous fuel. Thermogravimetric and differential thermal analyses (TG/DTA) techniques are used to investigate thermal degradation characteristics and the kinetic parameters (order of reaction, activation energy and pre-exponential factor) at the heating rate of 5, 10 and 20K/min. The next attempt is taken to gasify the newspaper at different temperatures in an oxygen free environment and the compositions of gaseous products have been determined in a gas-chromatography. It is found from chromatographic analysis that the temperatures have significant effect on the concentration of gases generated from the pyrolysis of newspaper.

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The inventory and usable amount of biomass has been examined from various perspectives. Based on the statistical data acquired, the estimated "total amount of domestic inventory" was obtained. However, other information such as the regional characteristic of biomass, extensively available over the landscape, has not yet been placed into an organized form. In order to promote the use of biomass energy as a countermeasure against global warming, and to further promote the merits of a recycling society, the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), has developed a series of maps and data detailing various biomass reserves. To increase the awareness of biomass as an energy source, NEDO has made this data available through the Internet.

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Expectation on Jatropha curcas (Jatropha) as a source of bio-diesel fuel (BDF) has been increasing in Indonesia. The government plans to establish Jatropha plantation on about 3 million ha of its wasteland. It needs to establish a flow from seed production to use of BDF. A coal mining company in East Kalimantan has developed a trial Jatropha plantation on ex-mining area with refining facility from crude seed oil to BDF, and testing the BDF as a fuel of the vehicle in the mining area. The company involves local communities to the trial plantation activities for improving their livelihood.

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Low-temperature catalytic gasification for swine compost is developed. The catalytic gasification was conducted in a two-stage quartz fixed bed. Ni loading brown coal (Ni-LY) was prepared and employed as a catalyst for livestock compost tar gasification. The results show that the Ni-LY performed high activity on the swine compost tar decomposition. Light product gases were gained at catalytic temperatures of 450, 550 and 650℃. Steam gasification of the tar was catalyzed resulting in hydrogen gas yield increase by approximately 2 times.

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The authors developed ASEAN biomass model that calculates bioenergy supply potential of cassava residues and palm residues in ASEAN region. Using the model, the authors evaluated bioenergy supply potential and utilization technologies in ASEAN region. The supply potential of biomass residues in ASEAN region is 18 EJ/year and the supply potentials in Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia are large. The utilization technologies that selected in the model on a large scale will be co-firing power generation and biomass power generation. In biofuel scenario, bioethanol using cellulosic biomass will be used on a large scale.

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The amount of sweet corn residues as biomass in Yamanashi prefecture was estimated 19,445 ton/year, and the amount of sugar from the biomass was 655 ton/year. As a result of the fermentation test of the extract from sweet corn residues using Saccharomyces cerevisiae, fermentation ratio was 0.85. Therefore, the amount of ethanol which can be possible to produce from the biomass in Yamanashi prefecture was 285 ton/year.

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Two-stage thermal gasification (carbonization and gasification) of wood chip and plywood from Japanese Larch was tried in a laboratory scale using CO2 as a gasification reagent. This gasification system is expected to decrease the emission of CO2 by recycling use as an oxygen carrier. The reaction of CO2 with char is known as boudouard reaction (C+CO2→2CO), and CO2 in the generated gas is considered as an unreacted gas. In this study, differences in the reaction rate of char and conversion rate of CO2 to CO between wood chip and plywood were discussed as well as reaction mechanism of char with CO2. Results obtained in this study show that the inorganic compounds, such as Ca or Na as additives to the adhesive for plywood used in this study, accelerated the gasification of plywood with CO2. In both samples, gasification temperature was an important factor on the reaction rate and conversion rate. Increasing of the CO2 flow rate accelerated the reaction rate of char with decreasing of conversion rate of CO2 to CO. It was suggested the new reaction mechanism of char and CO2 from the results. In this proposed route, CO2 was regenerated from the adduct of char-CO2 and competed with CO generation from the adduct.

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Tar raised from biomass pyrolysis was investigated in this study. Woody biomass was used as samples. Tarry material from pyrolysis of biomass was produced at room temperature 〜900℃ in a two-stage fixed bed reactor. After pyrolysis, raw tar or heat reforming tar was separated and quantitated into specific boiling point. Product were analyzed with GC. Biomass tar include many light organic compounds (<b.p.150℃). Most of these are reformed over 600℃.

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High temperature gasification experiment of woody biomass and PET in an entrained down-flow gasifier was carried out. Gasification experiment was evaluated by analyzing both gas-phase of produced gas and solid-phase of residues. As a result, it was clarified that high carbon to gas conversion could be achieved in the high temperature gasification experiment.

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It is generally accepted that larger facilities tend to be more efficient on the energy production. Biomass resources, however, are widely dispersed and have various conditions: the kind, size, moisture content, and so on. Thus, it is preferable that biomass resources are converted to energy in a small-scale plant close to the local area where biomass resources yield. In order to develop a small-scale gasifier in which biomass can be converted to energy with high efficiency, we proposed a gasification process that consists of two parts: pyrolysis part by the rotary kiln and char gasification part by the downdraft gasifier, and conducted fundamental experiments. This report provides our concept on the gasification process under development and the results of fundamental studies for the design process.

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The syngas (CO+H_2) required for liquid fuel synthesis was obtained by the oxygen-enrichment gasification of woody biomass by a bench-scale fixed-bed gasifier. The biomass feed rate was approximately 9 kg/h (dry basis). With an increase in the oxygen concentration from 22.8 to 30. 1 vol.%, the gas conversion on a carbon basis, CO concentration, and H_2 concentration increased from 91.9 to 96.2 C-mol%, 22.8 to 30.1 vol.%, and 16.8 to 23.7 vol.%, respectively. The concentrations of H_2S and COS derived from the woody biomass gasification were reduced to less than 5 ppb by using the scrubber and desulfurization tower. The hydrocarbon fuel was synthesized from purified gas using the Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis reactor. 1.9 L of the hydrocarbon fuel per day from 13 kg of woody biomass (dry basis) was successfully obtained using a bench-scale biomass to liquids (BTL) plant including the gasifier.

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CO_2/O_2 (79%/21%)/steam gasification and air/steam gasification of woody biomass (Particleboard) were carried out using a downdraft fixed bed gasifier in order to obtain syngas (CO, H_2) required for liquid fuel synthesis. In the range of steam ratio ([H_2O]/[C]) of 0 to 5, a syngas pressure (CO+H_2 vol%) in the CO_2/O_2/steam gasification was 37.7 to42.9 vol%, and were higher than those (26.3 to 33.5 vol%) in air/steam gasification. In CO_2/O_2/steam gasification, the syngas ratio of 1.0 was obtained at [H_O]/[C] of 5. The addition of CO_2 as a gasifying agent led to promotion of producer gas reaction and an increase of syngas pressure. The effect of steam ratio on sulfur compound concentration was studied in CO_2/O_2/steam gasification. The COS concentration decreased from 49.0 to 26.6 ppm with increasing from steam ratio of 0 to 5, while the H_2S concentration increased from 73.8 to 80.5 ppm.

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Rapid microwave pyrolysis of bagasse and corncob was studied. Electric power cost and yield of anhydrosugars were compared with those of pyrolysis of wood. Toxicological test of liquid products was examined and possible use of liquid products as liquid fuel was speculated based on their calorific value.

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The progress in cross-linking was examined during the pyrolysis of cellulose at several heating rates. The degree of cross-linking was so large that the heating rate is small. It was clarified that the cross-linking occurred at first, and then most of cross-linked molecules was devolatilized as tar by the glicosidic cleavage in the pyrolysis event.

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The apparent viscosity of chicken manure with suspended activated carbon, which could be the feedstock for the supercritical water gasification, was determined by a rotary viscometer. Correlation was derived, and the pressure loss was calculated from the resulting apparent viscosity.

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A thermo-balance was improved to analyze samples in the presence of steam, oxygen or both. TG analyses of J cedar wood, bark and other samples were conducted using this improved TG. The results were compared with those of gasification. The improved TG analysis is effective to predict gasification property in actual conditions.

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[in Japanese]

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Production of C_<3+> olefins (especially propylene) from ethanol using Fe/H-ZSM-5 catalysts was investigated. In the cases of 1 wt % of Fe loading and 450℃ of reaction temperature, selectivity of C_<3+> olefins (propylene) was improved in comparison with the cases of 10 wt % of Fe loading and 400℃ of reaction temperature. In the case of bioethanol used as ethanol, selectivity of C_<3+> olefins (propylene) was lower than the case of pure ethanol. However, addition of P or Au to H-ZSM-5 support led to higher selectivity for bioethanol than pure ethanol.

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Authors have been researched about the physical characteristics of solid residue in Hot-Compressed Water (HCW) treatment, and it was cleared that hemi-cellulose was decomposed in HCW treatment at 453 K and decomposition reaction progressed from not only the particle surface, but also the inner particle. For further study, the lignin content and the FT-IR spectrum of the solid residue were measured. The results indicate that HCW treatment at 453 K didn't destruct cellulose crystalline structure and didn't decompose lignin component.

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