バイオマス推進には、消費者を巻き込むことが必要である。環境に関するさまざまな消費者調査をみると、「環境意識は高く危機感はある」が実際の消費行動の変容やライフスタイルの変容までには繋がっていない。また、消費者は「日々の暮らし目線」で行動しており、「社会目線」とは繋がっていないという現状がある。そのためには、消費者・流通販売者・生産者の三者の関係性の再構築が急務である。

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In June 2009, biomass gasification WG has been established in Biomass Dept. of the Japan Institute of Energy. The goal of this WG is to clarify the potential of pyrolysis gasification for biomass conversion technology in term of the system and costs for technological improvements. The surrounding environment is also the causes for the increase in cost (including institutional factors), hence the academic as well as industrial sectors should contribute to the improvement of pyrolysis gasification technology by showing the solutions for the technical problems such as feedstock handling, tar formation. In addition, the compatibility of the law related to the biomass gasification with the advanced technology and economic efficiency is discussed.

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We suggest "C-stock" on Harvested Wood Products as kg-C or ton-C, because wood as oven-dry contains carbon about half of the weight. So, we recommend priority of material-use to energy-use as a cascade-type flow.

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In the 21^<st> century, one of our deepest concerns is how to secure energy for our dairy life. Fossil fuels should not play a main role in energy security because the emission of carbon dioxide from such resources leads to global warning. Effective use of solar energy by higher plants plays a key role in the solution of this problem. Photosynthesis is conversion process as well as reservation process of solar energy into organic compounds. Cumulative data in plant physiological studies are useful to optimize the plant growth in a green house where a variety of growth parameters are adjustable. However, plant responses under given artificial conditions are not fully studied. We are trying to find the plant responses under a variety of physically extreme conditions. Higher plants require light, water, minerals (N, P, K, and etc.), atmosphere and moderate temperature. Plant growth is significantly affected by modulating these factors. In order to examine the difference of the growth in a given extreme condition, with different parameters, a plant growth chamber is designed and fabricated. The optimum parameters obtained from a variety of experimental conditions bring about the maximum plant growth in the newly-developed growth chamber. We are trying to collect information of the optimum parameters needed for the maximum growth in a newly-developed growth chamber and to find their optimum range to the maximum growth, by which the maximum growth of a given plant is attained. These parameters are needed to produce organic compounds in the highest yield. The possibility of plants grown under artificial conditions for the energy source is discussed.

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We set 4 alternative utilization systems for sludge and food-waste, and assessed their effects on LC-C02, phosphorus recovery, and Adjusted Risk. The results is that (1) in urban area's system, the scramble of waste would occur between GHG(greenhouse gases) reduction and phosphorus recovery, and (2) in suburban area's and rural area's system, increase of health risk should be tolerated to give priority to GHG reduction and phosphorus security risk reduction.

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Ethaust emission performance when using biodiesel was evaluated by the application of a number of biodiesels to diesel vehicle complying with new long-term regulation. All emissions were not varied between all biodiesels, although all biodiesels increased NOx emission, compared with conventional diesel fuel. In addition, the questionnaire investigation to biodiesel users was conducted for understanding of the actual status of biodiesel utilization in Japan. This result showed that more than half of biodiesel users experienced vehicle troubles associated primarily with fuel injection system.

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Since wet-biomass such as sewage sludge contains much water, it is necessaiy to be dried before its utilization for fuels. Therefore, we have developed a carbonization process combined with diying step by fennentation. The sewage sludge of ca.80 wt% moisture was dried to ca 30 wt% moisture by fermentation based on the composting technology. The dried sludge of 0.1 t/h was carbonized at 430℃ by using a rotaly kiln which was externally heated by burning the volatile matter evaporated from the sludge. In this process, the wet-biomass can be dried and carbonized without fuels except for the start-up of the plant.

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Anaerobic digestion (AD) is one of the activities to create a sustainable society. AD has a function of waste treatment that removes an organic matters and it is able to take energy out of biogas and utilize it. However, AD is focused on its function of waste treatment and energy recovery/utilization is not sufficient in some cases. Therefore, a continuous operation test of biogas generation has been conducted by using food waste from a sauce factory. This test aimed to create a sustainable and labor-saving system with energy recovery/utilization by a cogeneration system. As a result, it achieved the compatibility of a capacity of waste treatment with energy recovery/utilization and operated for 6000 hours continuously and automatically. Furthermore, there is a surplus of energy balance as the generated electricity (l56kWh/day) exceeds the electricity from the grid (63kWh/day) in daily data.

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We made it possible to use waste cooking oil in an internal-combustion engine without purification. Our system controls the mixing ratio perfectly by computer. Afthough biomass fuel is of uneven quality, our system provide stable power generation.

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Woody biomass such as the thinned wood is widely distributed in the mountain-ringed region and the field, and it is difficult economically to collect and to transport it. Therefore, small-scale power generation is suitable in many cases. So, in this study we develop small-scale power system, in which stirling engine power system is combined with biomass combustion furnace. We aim at high thermal efficiency and low cost of the biomass power system through this development. In this paper, the demonstration plant of 30kW-class stirling engine system using biomass is introduced and typical results of the field test of the plant are reported.

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We are involved in development of a small-scale biomass gasification and power generation unit for large spread of renewable energy use to small mills in Japan. Gasification process convines downdraft gasifier and rotary kiln as a pyrolysis part which is applicable for biomass with various shape, size and moisuture. Gas engine system as a power generation part applies automobile gasoline engine with higher performance and lower cost. We installed a demonstration plant in a sawmill located in Takayama city at the end of 2009. This report provides a progress of the demonstration test.

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Phyto-mediations of the contaminated farmlands with cadmium were down by the rice cultivation and cadmium was concentrated in the rice tissues. Disposal of the rice absorbed cadmium is becoming one of serious problems in Niigata area. On the other hand, it is required to keep the paddy field function in the closed farmlands for returning in Japan. Most effective method to keep the function is to continue the rice culture. The rice, of course, could not be harvested as the food in the closed farmlands. Therefore, the possibility of utilization of the rice as the energy resources was researched. Two-stage thermal gasification (carbonization and gasification) of unhusked rice, rice husk and hulled rice were tried in a laboratory scale using the steam as a gasification reagent. In this study, char yield of difference part of rice at the 1^<st> stage carbonization were discussed. In the 2^<nd> stage, the effect of tissues of the rice on gasification rate and gas composition and HHV of water-gas was discussed.

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Glucose, as a representative biomass model compound, was gasified in a tubular reactor under the pressure of 25 MPa. The reaction temperature ranged from 300 to 460℃. Hydrothermal decomposition of glucose in the reaction network model was constructed, based on experimental product yields of glucose, fructose, char, gas, furfural, 5-HMF and other water-soluble products (TOC). In this work, subcritical rate constants were determined systematically changing the reaction temperature up to supercritical boundary region. Even though the overall reaction rate increased with temperature following the Arrhenius equation, the individual reaction rates of 5-HMF and furfural formation decreased in supercritical region.

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Increasing CO_2 emissions by using fossil fuel was concerned around the world. Woody biomass has drawn attention as an alternative fossil fuel. One of demerit of biomass is low energy density. In order to solve the demerit, it is necessary to clarify the gasification technology. In this paper, first, gasification characteristics of woody biomass were evaluated by elementary reaction analysis, DARS. As a result, the amount of syngas was calculated. Secondly, gasification experiments by Drop Tube Furnace were ran. As a result of gas analysis, the data of 3000msec was matched the result of the simulation. And the process of gasification was confirmed by taking sample images of SEM.

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One way for reducing tar is oxidative and thermal cracking by partial combustion of the producer gas in the gas reformer that is a stage subsequent to the biomass gasifler. The polymerization of tar into soot is a significant problem in the gas reformer. Experimental study with two types of laser diagnostics (soot-LII and PAHs-LIF) was performed to clarify the effect of hydrogen concentration in the combustion region on soot formation and the growth of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) that is precursor of soot. Soot formation was suppressed by the small amount of hydrogen addition to the oxidizer for partial combustion. The suppression of soot formation was caused by higher concentration of hydrogen at the proximity of the combustion region since the aromatic radicals were neutralized before they polymerized into soot.

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The biomass gasification power generation is favored due to the high thermal efficiency. However, most of raw biomass has much moisture and heat loss due to its evaporation before gasification is considerable. In order to increase the thermal efficiency of the power generating system, some pre-treatments of biomass are required. On the other hand, it is known that moderate moisture acts as a gasiiuing agent and contributes to advancement of gasification efficiency. Therefore, it is necessary to clari tolerance of the moisture content in consideration of the influence that moisture gives to the gasification performance and the tar formation characteristics for making of the biomass power system including the drying process highly effective. This paper shows the results of the gasification tests which have been conducted changing the moisture content in biomass by adding the water to the carbonizer..

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The basic pioperties analysis and test for 4 kinds of wood pellet were performed to research grindability of wood pellet for mixed use with coal in pulverized coal thermal power station. The grindability of wood pellet is affected by the particle size of raw material. The influence of wood parts on grindability is lower than that of raw material species.

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The potential of biomass resource is equivalent of approximately 5% of the primary energy aggregate supply in Japan if available untapped biomass resource can be used effectively. Therefore, the unused biomass resource is expected to reduce the degree of dependence to fossil resources. In this study, we targeted woody biomass, agricultural residues and food waste which occupied a large part of annual available quantity of energy and produced high-hardness solid fuel (named Bio-coke) from various kinds of biomass with heating and pressing method based on our patent (PAT.-No.4088933). We have measured the compressive strength of Bio-coke to derive its physical properties at room temperature, and also examined the physical properties of Bio-coke at high temperature (973K) with a particular compression testing machine as assuming its usage under high temperature atmosphere. We contemplated the relation between the compressive strength at room temperature and high temperature for Bio-coke. As a result, there are not any relationships between the compressive strength at room temperature and high temperature. It is conjectured that the difference of the compressive strength between room temperature and high temperature proceeds from the component percentages and organization structure of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin for each biomass

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In this study, we investigated if fossil fuel can be substituted by rice husk on a new combustor in the air vortex current. Because, suspended particulate matter in exhaust gases not only influence the global environment when released in the atmosphere but also influence on human health. Harmful substances emits from the rice husk combustion were evaluated by measuring the suspended particulate matter composition on the exhaust, and the reduction possibility of these harmful substances by controlling the combustion conditions was examined. Experimental show that the particulate concentrations can be reduced substantially by highly effective combustion with an improved combustor compared with a previous combustor.

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We isolated the xylose fermenting yeast (SS1-2) from solids in Japan and also developed the novel ethanol production system using Saccharomyces cerevisiae and SS1-2 from cellulosic biomass. Firstly, liquefied biomass was fermented by S cerevisiae. Then glucose was converted to ethanol. After l5rst fermentation, fermented broth was treated by gas-stripping using N_2 gas in order to remove the ethanoL Secondly, the treated broth was fermented by SS1-2. Then xylose was converted to ethanol. Various cellulosic biomasses were investigated using this novel system. Saccharifled-liquid was obtained by anmonia-pretreatement and cellulase treatment. Saccharified-liquid of Salixpet-susu contained 54 g/L of glucose and 17 g/L of xylose. When ethanol production was done using novel production system, 32 g/L of ethanol was produced and theoretical yield was 90%.

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Although many studies have evaluated enzyme activity in the liquid phase, such as FPU, CMCase, and β-glucosidase activity, enzyme activity in solid residue is difficult to evaluate by the same method. We propose a method for evaluating the reusable cellulase activity in solid residue and use the method to measure the activity. After 70% of cellulose was hydrolyzed, about 70% of initial activity remained in the residue.

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To prepare a substrate for microbial conversion of xylose into xylitol, the cuim of Sasa senanensis was hydrolyzed with dilute sulfuric acid. When the reaction temperature was fixed at 121℃, an optimum yield of xylose was obtained by treatment with 2% sulfuric acid for 1 h. Either an increase in the sulfuric acid concentration or a prolonged reaction time resulted in a decrease in the xylose yield. A fermentable substrate with a relatively high xylose concentration (36.7 g IL) was obtained by hydrolysis with 2% sulfuric acid with a liquid to solid ratio of 5 g g^<-1>. During hydrolysis at elevated temperatures, certain undesired byproducts were also generated, such as degradation products of solubilized sugars and lignin, which are potential inhibitors of microbial metabolism. These compounds were, however, successfully removed from the hydrolyzate by treatment with a commercial steam-activated char. Microbial conversion of xylose in the detoxified hydrolyzate into xylitol was carried out using a yeast Candida magnoliae.

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This study evaluated the genetic variability and biomass potential (BP) of susuki (Miscanthus sinensis) in cool region as border of habitat area. 43 M. sinensis accessions collected throughout Japan were transplanted side-by-side in field in 2007 in cool season condition and, harvested in late autumn of 2008 and 2009. Accessions (67%) could survive until the third year. For accessions from Hokkaido region, plant morphology varied less between different locations of Hokkaido. Combined with accessions from other regions it varied and vigorous morphology was observed some accessions from warm region. Consequently, morphological difference affected greatly BP which was inferior (42%) with accessions from Hokkaido than others from warn regions. Much genetic variability would be useful for breeding program of Miscanthus adaptable cool environment.

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Quantities of wood biomass and cost were estimated in order to supply for 26 coal-fired plants in Japan. Firstly, when the maximum supply cost was limited to 18,000 yen/dry-t, the plants could hardly obtain the wood biomass except for one plant in Hiroshima Prefecture using the currently used supply system in Japan. On the other hand, the improved supply system increased wood biomass supply for all plants. Secondly, supply costs were estimated for substituting the wood biomass for 3 % of coal consumption at each plant. Five plants could supply enough quantity of wood biomass with less than 18,000 yen/dry-t using the current supply system, while 25 plants could do so using the improved system.

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Forest woody biomass are scattered at vast tree stands on steep terrain in Japan. Efficient harvesting way to them has been anticipated for long time. Cable logging system has been operated at mountainous area for timber harvesting and new generation cable operation system by tower yarder enabled full tree logging and harvesting residual utilization.

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The moisture reduction in fuelwood of Japanese cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa) and evergreen oak spp. (Quercus glauca) was evaluated under some conditions differentiated in split sizes (one quarter or one eighth), drying area (paved or unpaved, roofed or unroofed), and season (winter or summer). Japanese cypress dried out more rapidly than oak. Splitting enables the acceleration of drying rate and size effect was more enhanced in oak with higher wood density. Any benefits of natural seasoning were realized within the first one or two month. Under natural seasoning with uriroofed condition, there was little benefit in longer drying period of fuelwood in terms of rainfall.

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In this study, we studied effect of pressure of DME synthesis in BTL process on the economy. As results, it was found that DME synthesis at low pressure could decrease fixed cost and running cost in DME synthesis process though it also decreased the yield of DME. Consequently, it might decrease the whole production cost.

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Wet oxidation cail be applied to the nutrients recovery of fermentation process in the bio-ethanol production. The purpose of this study is the evaluation for the nutrients recycling fermentation system by wet oxidation. It is suggested that the proposed system was able to recycle most of phosphorus and potassium. In addition, the proposed system has economic advantage by the reduction of the substrate consumption compared to conventional system.

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The purpose of the study is the evaluation of the potential of GHG (green house gas) reductions by installing an anaerobic digester in a wastewater treatment facility in Southeast Asia. In the advanced system, a wastewater is treated in the digester, and methane (biogas) is produced and recovered. Compared with the conventional system, the biogas can be utilized for power generation and substitute fossil fuel. The results show that the largest GHG reduction as the Certified Emission Reduction (CER) credit is 73,000 t-CO_2e/yr, and the reduction cost is 14 USD/t-CO_2e. Although the substitution of the biogas for the fossil fuels reduces only 10% of the GHG emissions, the electricity output can satisfy the electricity consumption.

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The BDF manufacturing plant where the scale and the operating procedure of the Mie Prefecture [inabe] city and the Saitama Prefecture Miyashiro-cho are different is evaluated by the life-cycle assessment technique. In addition, it proposes the ideal way of the BDF use with few negative environmental impacts. Moreover, the comparison between light oil and each plant is done, and how the negative environmental impact can be reduced is evaluated as an alternative fuel of light oil.

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In the development of bio-ethanol conversion system from lingo-cellulosic biomass, multi-objective targets such as cost; energy efficiency and GHG balance are assigned. Overall system consists of individual processes starting supply of biomass followed by pre-Irealment, saccharification, fermentation, conceniration/dehydration and auxiliaiy processes. The performance of the individual process depends on that of other process/processes, consequently, it is a complicated task to optimize the overall system performance timely, especially in continuously improving early development stage. LCA support tool provides a powerful measure to cope with this problem. Making use of available tool functions e.g. process representing, balance calculation and data analysis proved to be effective for screening or evaluation of process and/or technology alternatives, distance to target etc. It enables providing quantitative information rapidly for strategic management of the development program.

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Japanese forestry has been on the decline, Japanese forest has been devastated and forest biomass has not been well used. On the contrary European forestry has been thriving, the thinning tree and sawdust of the sawmill are well used to power generation or heat generation. In order to make the difference clear, the success example of biomass gasification power generation, bio-fuel generation etc. on Guessing in Austria will be introduced.

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It is confirmed that energy-recycling system from syrup waste has a lot of benefit at canning factory. Biogas was obtained from syrup solution by methane fermentation, which was estimated to be approximately 500mL/g-TS/day. Syrup waste of 2.5ton/day will make biogas of approximately 188m^3/day, and gas engine of 25kW will supply electric power and heat to the factory in our proposed system. The cost for drainage treatment of the syrup waste will be reduced to half by the cogeneration system. In this study, the distinctive feature concerned to the economic and environmental view will be discussed.

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Biomass accounting form is a tool supporting decision-making regarding economic and environmental estimation of biomass utilization systems. Suggested in our previous works, biomass accounting form records data on biomass utilization amount, initial and running costs, etc. in the form of accounting sheet. In this study, evaluation of biomass-related activities conducted in Maniwa biomass town was performed by means of this tool. 17 activities including woody biomass direct burning, pellet production, and biomass education and promotion activities were targeted. The required information was gathered by hearing; after that accounting sheets for each activity as well as an integrated accounting sheet were created. Analysis of the results showed that though several activities had low cost-benefit performance, the economic and environmental efficiency of the whole system was comparatively high. This can be explained by the large scale of the most activities under study. However, it became clear that social impact, such as employment opportunity increase or budget spent for salaries was low due to the fact that most of the biomass-related projects targeted here were conducted as a part of already existing economic activities, such as lumber manufacturing, etc.

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There are utilization of Biomass Energy as a method of using the prune branch. Recently, that appears the case of woody biomass CGS (below WBCGS).But the efficiency of WBCGS is low, it doesn't come up to 25%. On the other hand, a lot of the prune branch has been generated in Tokyo 23 wards. Then I made distribution of those using GIS tool. And I did simulations in some case of the introduction of WBCGS. As a result, the efficiency of those became above 50% except one case. Also I considered energy that takes to put into WBCGS from pruning.

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Our research aims at the development of community management system based on the use of woody biomass technology. To accomplish this goal, we began making the local farmers' and the forest owners' attitudes. This paper makes an observation on the forest owners' attitude model.

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The objective of this R&D was to develop an energy conserving high-impact pulverizing mill, which replaces the ball medium with a cog-ring medium called "tandem-ring". It is used for effective pretreatment when the bio-ethanol was produced from the lignocellulosic biomass. To achieve this, the authors developed a horizontal, unidirectional shaker that reduced the required driving power in element examination. To verify the effect of the unidirectional shaking in a horizontal direction, a comparative test of horizontal shaking vs. circular shaking was carried out. The authors observed an energy conservation effect when horizontal shaking was performed.

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To reduce consumption energy during the pulverization process, pulverization pot of the vibration mill was modified. In this experiment, effect of the pot size and the number of tube in the pot on pulverization ability, such as pulverization particle size, crystallinity of cellulose, consumption energy and productivity, was evaluated. As a result, Consumption energy increase with increasing the number of the pot, but consumption energy per woody powder production in the multiple tube pot was improved significantly. Production speed of the multi-tube was almost as same as that single one, but the production amount increased the multiple number of this pots.

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