• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Japan, Brazil Agree to Exchange Info on Plant-Derived Ethanol

Posted on: Monday, 10 April 2006, 12:00 CDT

By Kyodo News International, Tokyo

Apr. 10--TOKYO -- Japan and Brazil agreed Monday to promote information exchange on ethanol derived from plants, in a bid to help private-sector businesses that will use the fuel in Japan to be imported from Brazil in the near future, Japanese officials said.

Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Toshihiro Nikai and visiting Brazilian Development, Industry and Foreign Trade Minister Luiz Fernando Furlan reached an accord to cooperate in promoting the fuel during the two countries' first ministerial-level working group meeting in Tokyo, they said.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi had agreed to set up the working group during their meeting in Tokyo in May last year.

Brazil is the world's largest ethanol producer, with an annual output of about 15 million kiloliters. The country is also the only exporter in the world of the fuel produced from plants such as sugar cane.

Japan, which currently uses the plant-derived fuel only in experiments for demonstration, aims to eventually increase its use as a way of achieving its target under the Kyoto Protocol to cut carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions.

Plant-derived fuel helps reduce carbon dioxide emissions because when burned, it releases only CO2 that was already absorbed by the plants.

In March, Japan Alcohol Trading Co. and Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras), Brazil's state-run oil company, set up a joint venture to import alcohol made from sugarcane from Brazil into Japan.

The joint venture Brazil-Japan Ethanol Co. will serve as Petrobras' exclusive agency in Japan for ethanol sales.

In a related move, the Petroleum Association of Japan, an industry group of oil wholesalers, said in January that it plans to introduce about 360,000 kl of plant-derived ethanol in fiscal 2010 to contribute to Japan's achievement of goals under the Kyoto pact.

Brazil directly mixes the plant-derived fuel with gasoline, but the Japanese oil companies say they will instead use a substance produced from ethanol and a gas, because the direct mixing method could generate harmful substances that would exceed Japan's environmental standards.

The substance has been used as a fuel for vehicles in France, Spain and Germany, according to the petroleum association.

-----

To see more of Kyodo News International, go to http://www.kyodonews.com

Copyright (c) 2006, Kyodo News International, Tokyo

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

PBR,

Source: Kyodo News International, Tokyo

More News in this Category