Honda to build cellulosic ethanol research facility
One alternative fuel area where Japanese automakers have shown comparatively little interest, until recently, is biofuels. Toyota has announced plans to offer a flex-fuel version of the Tundra and Honda offers flex-fuel Civics in Brazil. Toyota also recently announced a cellulosic ethanol partnership. Honda has now announced plans to build a new R&D facility in Japan that will focus on producing biofuels from non-food feedstocks. The 1,050 m2 lab is expected to be completed and operating by November of this year. Honda has been working with the Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth since 2006 and began operating an experimental production facility in 2007.
So far, Honda hasn't given any indication that it will offer any flex-fuel vehicles in the U.S. market. Perhaps now that Honda has backed off from its plans to offer diesels in the U.S. market and only plans to offer hybrids in small cars, we may start to see the company embrace ethanol.
[Source: Honda]
Honda to Build New R&D Facility to Work Toward Establishment of Bio-Ethanol Production Technology
TOKYO, Japan, February 26, 2009 - Honda Motor Co., Ltd. announced that the company has signed an "Agreement concerning regulations and standards for establishing R&D facilities in Kazusa Akademia Park*" with Chiba prefecture and Investment Promotion Association of Kazusa Akademia Park (chaired by Governor Akiko Domoto of Chiba prefecture) based on its decision to build a new research facility that will enable Honda to work toward the establishment and practical application of bio-ethanol production technology from non-edible cellulosic material such as the stems and leaves of plants.
The new Kazusa-branch facility of Honda R&D Co., Ltd. Fundamental Technology Research Center, will be built within the Kazusa Akademia Park (in Kisarazu, Chiba). Honda plans to build a single 1,050m2 building (approximate gross floor space) as a testing facility on the 5,000m2 lot. The construction is scheduled to begin in April 2009, with the goal to begin operations in November 2009.
Honda is continuing its collaborative research on bio-ethanol production technology with RITE (Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth) which began in 2006 and has been conducting research on the bio-ethanol conversion process using an experimental plant built within the Honda R&D Co., Ltd. Fundamental Technology Research Center (Wako, Saitama) since April 2007. In order to move toward practical application of the technology, Honda decided to build a new facility as it became necessary to conduct a research using a large-scale experimental facility which enables more accurate evaluations.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Carney 4:48PM (2/27/2009)
It's pretty easy to make the Japanese go flex fuel.
If we mandated that all new cars sold in America were flex fueled, the Japanese are not going to walk away from the US market; they'd switch all their production lines to flex fuel, and would not bother with a separate gasoline-only one for outside the US. Same with the Koreans, Germans, and all other automakers who sell internationally in a serious way.
In effect by making flex fuel the US standard we make it the international standard, forcing gasoline to compete with alcohol all over the world.
And again, cellulosic ethanol is nice, but not urgently necessary, and most certainly not, as it too often seems, an excuse to wait around until it comes along before moving from gasoline to alcohol as the norm for vehicle fuel.
A combination of ethanol and methanol, complementing each other, is the way forward, and existing technology can produce plenty of both, without harming food stocks or food prices.
And methanol can be made (with current tech) from ANY biomass without exception, including high cellulose plant material.
So let's get moving, and mandate flex fuel capacity as a standard feature in all cars, like seat belts. It's $100 per car for the automakers, and a long overdue, and frankly obvious, step.
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ALAN 9:29AM (2/28/2009)
I agree that cost differential between flex fuel an gasoline only is not a valid argument from the auto industry, if Brazil can do it so can we, mandate it.
Methanol cannot be distributed as easily as ethanol, using the existing infrastructure currently giving ethanol the edge. Cellulosic ethanol can be made today, maybe not at $1.60 a gallon but some companies are not far off ( www.klenergycorp.com ). The problem is the capital investment required is higher the simple corn based fermentation plants, and no active investor is chasing projects today. If Obama's vision is to be more than rhetoric, it will need a firm commitment to stick to the volume mandate, and government loan guarantees.
Carney 4:46PM (3/01/2009)
Thanks for your support for a mandate, ALAN. You're right that the Brazilian example is instructive in many ways.
You're right that methanol needs to be trucked rather than pipelined until the pipelines upgrade their materials. However, that is counterbalanced by methanol's greater convenience in other ways: making use of otherwise problematic stuff like "black liquor" from paper mills, rice bran, weed plants, trash, sewage, etc., and its very low production cost which makes up for the shipping.
I don't think ethanol-only, or methanol-only, is a viable plan. Alcohol advocates (and there are methanol-only ones too, based on cost, food vs. fuel fears, etc.) need to work together, not at cross-purposes. The two fuels are both essential for an alcohol future.
MARY 11:07PM (2/27/2009)
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PHILLIP 6:37PM (3/06/2009)
I'm a pipefitter /maintenance mechanic for Pacific Ethanol, I was there at start up of the onehundred forty million dollar facility 7 months ago. Now they laid us all off due to market constraints. It would be real nice to find out if there is going to be any American contractors winning bids to build this Japanese deal. It would be even nicer to be hired by one of those contractors since I know the Delta T design and have been instrumental in correcting some of its design flaws.
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