Kawasaki develops cellulosic biofuels competitive with Brazilian ethanol in Japan

In Japan, Kawasaki Heavy Industries said that it has developed a technology to produce ethanol from rice straw at a cost of 80 yen per liter (including feedstock and processing costs), or competitive with Brazilian ethanol which costs between 80 to 100 yen per liter to import.

However, Kawaskai added that it has, as of yet, developed no specific roadmap to commercialization of the technology and the Japanese agricultural ministry, in reviewing the pathways to cellulosic ethanol, suggested that commercial-scale production from non-food feedstocks would not be economically viable, at scale, before 2018 in Japan.

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