Business trend
Honda Research and Development, a subsidiary of Honda Motor, started a joint research with the Department of Energy of the U.S. to develop biofuel from nonfood steams and
leaves of corn and cane pomace. Green Earth Institute that is a venture company
originating from Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth will
also participate in the joint project. The two Japanese organizations will
ferment sugar using their self-developed gene-modified fungus to produce sugar
through fermentation. The U.S. side will take care of the pretreatment process
that begins with processing trees and plants and ends in extracting sugar. The
U.S. side reckons that the Japanese technology will halve the price of
bioethanol to 2.5 dollars. A gallon is about 3.8 liters.
When both sides
successfully pave the way for practical application, the U.S. Department Energy
will advertise for participating companies and incorporate the new technology
into the production mechanism of bioethanol plants. The test production is
scheduled for 2014, and the target for the practical application is in 2016.
Finished product will be marketed inside the U.S. World bioethanol production
in 2011 was about 26 billion gallons, most of which was consumed by vehicles.
The U.S. plans to increase the production of biofuel made from nonfood to 16
billion gallons in 10 years.
Honda’s Flexible
Fuel Vehicle (FFV) built for Brazil that runs either with ethanol or with the mixed
fuel of gasoline and ethanol 
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