Biofuels are in the news in Japan.

A Japanese research group is claiming a first – a cleaner/greener production of biodiesel fuel – the “non-catalytic superheated methanol method.”

“At a pilot plant the group was able to continuously produce 400L of fatty acid methyl ester (FAME), a biodiesel fuel, out of 500L of raw material oil every day.” They also succeeded in producing FAME from vegetable oil (new oil) and waste edible oil in their tests.

The current method – the methyl esterification:

  1. used a complicated refining process which was required to remove side products
  2. required repeated cleaning resulting in multiple processes and a large amount of waste water
  3. required repeated cleaning to improve the purity of the product also wasting water

However, the new method :

  1. does not require a catalyst
  2. creates virtually no waste water or liquid.

Image courtesy of griffs0000

Meanwhile, JAL (Japan Airlines) will test biofuels in one of its airliners; 50% biofuel and 50% traditional Jet-A jet (kerosene). It’s “a mixture of three second-generation biofuel feedstocks: camelina (84%), jatropha (under 16%), and algae (under 1%).” The test flight will have JAL staff only, no passengers.

Please be seated while we drink our fuel and fly it, too.

If you're new here and you like our articles, how about subscribing free for our updates via RSS feed.

Related posts:

  1. The Problem with Biofuels – U.N. Food SummitNot all countries think more biofuels are the answer. At least not yet. There’s Japan, the United States, Brazil…the major biofuel-producing countries. The beef, um,...

  2. Aircraft manufacturing giants to test biofuels by aslaugsvava If last month Virgin Atlantic tested a Boeing 747 running with 80 percent normal fuel mixed with 20 percent biofuel, but Continental...

  3. Good News and Bad News about Drop in CO2 EmissionsThere’s good news and bad news about a 10% drop in CO2 emissions overall in FY08 in Japan. The good news for the CO2 watchers...