Bamboo as Fuel: From Satoyama to Energy - The Challenge of Bamboo Bioethanol Technology (December 2008)
The technology to produce bioethanol from bamboo was born at the intersection of energy and local environmental issues that Japanese society was facing in the late 2000s. Bioethanol was a strong candidate. Bioethanol was a strong candidate, but the use of corn and other food resources as raw materials led to soaring food prices and international criticism, and there was strong demand for the use of non-food biomass.
In this context, bamboo attracted attention. Bamboo grows quickly and is highly regenerative, but in unmanaged satoyama, neglected bamboo forests have expanded, causing problems such as farmland erosion, ecosystem simplification, and landscape deterioration. Bamboo has become a problem in many areas, including western Shizuoka Prefecture, and the development of technology to utilize it as a resource has been requested by the local community.
It was against this backdrop that Shizuoka University and a bamboo powder manufacturer in Hamamatsu City undertook a joint research project. The technology is characterized by a pretreatment technique in which bamboo is processed into a fine powder of approximately 50 micrometers, and impurities that inhibit fermentation are removed by laser treatment. This improves the efficiency of cellulose extraction and makes it suitable for bioconversion.
In the next process, the extracted cellulose is converted into sugar and ethanol is produced through fermentation. The company achieved a sugar conversion efficiency of 75%, which was a high level at the time, and aimed to increase it to 80% within three years. This technology showed the potential to simultaneously produce renewable energy and manage satoyama. This trial, a collaboration between a university and a local company, was a challenge that symbolized the search for a recycling-oriented society in the latter half of the 2000s.
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