NEDO to launch ethanol-from-cassava residue project in Thailand

Dec 17, 2012 - The New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization of Japan (NEDO) will launch a project for bioethanol production from cassava residue in Thailand to demonstrate the efficiency of thermotolerant yeast developed in Japan.

NEDO has signed a memorandum of understanding to implement the project with the National Innovation Agency of Thailand, Japanese the organisation said in a statement today. The project is expected to cost some JPY 700 million (USD 8.4m/EUR 6.4m), of which NEDO will provide around JPY 500 million.

The project will be carried out between fiscal year 2011/12 and 2014/15 at a pilot plant with the capacity to process 1,000 tonnes of undried cassava residue and produce 80,000 litres (21,000 gallons) of bioethanol a year. Data collected via the project will be assessed until February 2016. The first bioethanol plant with bioethanol production technologies using Japanese thermotolerant yeast will be built and operated through guidance provided to companies producing cassava pulp, NEDO said. The organisation also plans to provide follow-up activities including seminars to distribute the technologies throughout Thailand and in the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries.

Thailand's annual air-dried cassava pulp production volume, which was 1.9 million tonnes as of 2010, can be recycled to produce some 1.7 million litres of bioethanol per day and 620 million litres a year, according to NEDO. The Thai government aims to increase daily bioethanol production capacity in the country from 1.3 million litres to 9 million litres by 2022 as part of its goal to supply 20.3% of Thailand's energy consumption from renewables by 2022, NEDO added citing data by the Thai Department of Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency.

(JPY 100 = USD 1.196/EUR 0.909)

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