Their goal is to create the alternative fuel while holding down production costs to about 40 yen per liter.
The Biomass Technology Research Center of AIST's Hiroshima arm will serve as the research base. The partners will produce ethanol by fermenting glucose made from cellulose contained in wood. To turn cellulose into glucose by enzymatic conversion, preprocessing pulverization is necessary to make sure the enzymes permeate the substance.
Juon pulverizes wood material derived from forest thinning and other activities to extract a solution that adsorbs harmful substances from exhaust gas. It uses the solution in its exhaust gas purification equipment.
AIST will take 2-3cm wood chips following solution extraction and further pulverize them. It will also research various pulverizing methods that combine hydrothermal processing as well as look into ways to speed the process by adding softening agents.