Bioethanol – Fuel from Plants
Don’t throw out those carrot tops, they may be the next generation of biofuel!
Toyota, along with other Japanese companies, announced they are setting up a research company to develop cellulose derived biofuel. Cellulosic ethanol uses inedible plant matter.
In the U.S. corn based ethanol has been blamed for raising food prices along with a host of environmental problems as the fuel uses quite a bit of energy to produce and creates more pollution than it saves.
According to Reuters, the consortium has set itself the goal of producing 1.6 million barrels per year of bioethanol by March 2014, and producing bioethanol at about $70 a barrel by 2015.
The other firms involved include: Nippon Oil Company, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Toray Industries Inc, Kajima Corp and Sapporo Engineering Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sapporo Breweries.