Garbage and the mud of drainage become the fuels. Biogas spread promotion "Biogas net Japan" was established.

Kinds of biomass fuel that uses biomass (organic resource that appeared from flora and fauna that can be recycled as energy source) biogas. It becomes the substitute of the fossil fuel, and to make the waste such as "Garbage and sewage sludge" a raw material unlike the biotechnology ethanol that uses sugarcane and corn, the scramble with food is not caused in the same biotechnology fuel either. In addition, the methane fermentation that generates biogas is suppressed to about 1/4 compared with the ethanol production only of the generation of the calorie as which the produce cost is the same as the technology has already established it. Moreover, the Kyoto Protocol also has the advantage "The carbon dioxide for combustion need not be included in the calculation".

In Germany and Sweden, etc. the spread is advanced more than the biotechnology ethanol). biogas with such a characteristicHowever, it is said that the case where the combustion processing is done without being not able to secure the profit because there are as much as 40% carbon dioxide mixture rate, and being used as energy in Japan is most.

Having established the merger company this time improves the density of this biogas further. The one (The proof experiment is conducted by "Biogas network consortium" established in 2005, and the density of the refinement biogas not only is improved even to the city gas and the natural gas corresponding but also succeed in the establishment of the technology that transports the refinement biogas) by having proven the refinement technology that makes it to "Refinement biogas" that condenses the density of the methane up to 95%. Using and spreading it as and an alternate fuel that can use this "Refinement biogas" widely aim.

It is necessary to refine it so that impurities (hydrogen sulfide etc.) contained in the gas that ferments the methane and is made may influence facilities harmfully.

The enterprise that participates is Kanematsu, is Idemitsu Kosan, is Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd., and is Nippon Gas, etc. in the listed company excluding Japanese General Laboratory. Three "High time of on-site use (To refine and to use the refinement biogas in the source of the biogas such as the food factories, promote it)", "Fuel use (Biogas is refined from the industrial waste etc. , and supply it to the natural gas vehicle) for transportation", and "Gas Haz use (The refinement biogas is supplied from the stock raising farmer to the external supply and demand layer such as the food factories etc.)" in the future are scheduled to be developed as a pillar of the business.

City bus of refinement biogas
use used in Kobe City

The refinement biogas is experimentally concretely supplied to 50 natural gas vehicles such as garbage trucks in Tokyo by the end of this year. It will shift to the company by three years later now though the merger company, and it aims at the sales 23 billion yen in 2015. It is expected that Japanese General Laboratory will exceed 200 billion yen by the market scale of biogas, and the meaning that advances the use promotion of environmental measures and renewable energy aims at the expansion of the business development.