TOKYO — The development of crossed varieties between biofuel feedstocks like sugarcane and sorghum, among others, will enable Japan to displace 10 percent of its polluting gasoline source by 2030.

And the Philippines, which is already engaged in raising yield of existing biofuel crops, may follow after Japan in developing hybrids of the crops that have already proven good biofuel sources.

The crops being crossed by the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) of Japan also includes other energy crops like erianthus, a type of grass that grows in temperate zones, and silver grass.

"We are a bit behind US and Europe. They concentrated on research on biofuel years ago, but Japan is trying to catch up," said Dr. Tatsuki Ueda of NARO, in an interview at the sidelines of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) World Congress.

NARO’s target is to raise yield of crops significantly by at least two times in order to maximize use of limited farmlands.

The sorghum Tentaka is now yielding 40 metric tons (MT) per hectare on a dry basis, still lower than the sweet sorghum varieties in the Philippines that yield an average 70 MT in pilot areas.

Erianthus yields 70 MT on dry basis.

The strength of these high-yielding varieties lies on certain traits like disease-tolerance, drought-resistance, suitability in marginal soils, and high sugar and fiber yields.

Aside from crossing energy crops, Japan’s focus is more on the development of ligno-cellulosic biomass which has cheaper and more abundant sources there.

Research and Development (R&D) on ligno cellulosic biomass will begin this year and will last up to 2012.

Ligno-cellulosic biomass uses waste agricultural (rice straw, husks) and forestry residues like substandard timber which are normally just left in the forests.

An advantage of ligno-cellulosic biomass is that it does not have to take away any food source since the raw materials are non-food in the first place.

In this technology, Japan also likes to replicate the model of Brazil in the linking of farms and energy plants to save energy and production cost. Brazil is the world’s largest producer and exporter of sugar and ethanol.
In Brazil, bioethanol production, bagasse, supposedly a sugarcane waste, is burned as fuel to run the sugar mill boiler.

This then enables mills to produce raw sugar without the use of polluting fossil fuel.

Moreover, the liquid waste water (generated from the fermentation and distillation process while producing bioethanol) is returned to the farms as fertilizer.

By 2011, Japan will have produced 50,000 kiloliters (KL) per year of biofuel using molasses (sugarcane by-product) and substandard cereals (wheat and rice).

By 2030, it will have produced six million KL yearly of bioethanol to replace 10 percent of its present gasoline consumption.

"We will use energy crops on fallow lands, we need to maintain already low food self-sufficiency while producing biofuels," he said.

The R&D works of NARO is being done in collaboration with other agencies such as the National Institute for Advanced Industrial Sciences and Technology (AIST).

Ueda is aware that other agencies, particularly the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences, are engaged in a collaboration on biofuel R&D within Southeast Asia.

But this is mostly with Malaysia and Indonesia. Whether the Philippines can enter into the R&D cooperation, Ueda is not certain.

The development of bioethanol, biomethanol, and biodiesel are being set up in six model areas across Japan.

One model now is a biodiesel production that uses the Simultaneous Reaction of Trans-esterification and Cracking (STING).

With STING, no glycerol is formed, so yield is high. There is low viscosity, so quality is high too.

Largely depending on crude oil at 50 percent, Japan, where the Kyoto Protocol was conceived, is initiating intensive R&D on biofuel crops to keep up with its own greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets.

New energy still accounts for a still small two percent while clean energy source geothermal is at an even diminutive 0.1 percent.

The opportunity in planting energy crops are in abandoned farmlands, totaling 450,000 hectares, left by a declining farming population that are either ageing or tending to choose the urban life.

"The domestic biofuel production will increase energy self-sufficiency and contribute to reducing GHG emissions. It will employ underutilized farmland resources in Japan, thus revitalizing rural communities," Ueda said.

Other feedstocks for biofuel are sugar beet which is being bred as a high-yielding variety and for adaptability to direct seeding (which cuts labor and transplanting time).

Japan other energy sources are coal, 20 percent; natural gas, 14 percent; and nuclear energy, nine percent.