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RITE Today2013 Vol.088

Annual Report

Research Institute of Inovative Tecnology for the EarthRITE Today2013 Vol.08¦

Contents
Foreword

Development of CCS and Novel Membrane Separation Technologies
Shin-ichi Nakao Group leader, Chemical Research Group, Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth03

R&D Activities
Research Planning Group
Recent Activities and Challenges on Innovative Mitigation Technologies to Prevent Global Warming

04

Systems Analysis Group
Analysis on Japan’s Energy and Environment Strategy

13

Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology Group
Global Biorefinery Trends and Research Overview

21

Chemical Research Group
Challenges for Advanced Industrializing CO2 Capture Technologies and CO2 Emission Reduction Technologies

28

CO2 Storage Research Group
Developing CO2 Storage Technologies Aimed at Practical Application

35

Topics45

2012 Paper, Presentation and Publication

56

01

02

Foreword

R I TE To da y 2013

Development of CCS
and Novel Membrane Separation Technologies
Shin-ichi Nakao

Group leader, Chemical Research Group, RITEAs suggested from recent news about ice melting in the Arctic Ocean etc, global
warming problem is getting more and more serious, and it is urgent issue to prevent global warming
problem. It is inevitable to develop so called CCS technologies, in which CO2, a greenhouse gas, iscaptured from large emission source such as electric power plant and factories and stored either inthe onshore or offshore aquifer. Chemical Research Group in RITE is very unique research groupwhich is specialized to develop CO2 capture technologies, and research and development on
chemical absorption, solid sorbent and membranes are being conducted. These technologies arealmost at the stage of practical application or demonstration. Development of CO2 storage
technologies are also advanced and large-scale CO2 storage demonstration is now started.
According to Japanese CCS roadmap, practical application of CCS will start in 2020, and CCS
related technologies are being developed rapidly.
When practical application of CCS is started, basically the scale of research anddevelopment of CCS will be reduced, although modification of technologies and research on safety
evaluation will still be needed. So, in Chemical Research Group, development of technologies that
don’t emit CO2 is just started as a next stage of global warming problem prevention, in addition to
CO2 capture technologies. Renewable energy, such as solar energy and wind energy, is generated byusing solar cells and wind turbine as electrical energy, and is now being used more and more
extensively. However, the biggest problems about these energies are that supply of these energies is
unstable and that it is impossible to store these energies. To address these issues, the system inwhich H2 is generated by electrical energy and H2 is transported and stored as H2 carrier isconsidered promising. When necessary, H2 is obtained from H2 carrier, and is used to generate
electricity using either fuel cell or H2 as fuels. And this electrical energy from renewable energy canbe used complementarily with conventional electricity supply system. This system can avoid
instability of electricity supply, and can reduce CO2 emission at the same time.
The candidate materials for the H2 carrier used to be hydrogen storage alloys. Recently,
organic chemical hydrides such as methylcyclohexane and ammonia attract a great deal ofattention. In order to obtain H2 from organic chemical hydrides, dehydrogenation and subsequent
separation of H2 and aromatic hydrocarbons (e.g., toluene) are needed. In Chemical Research Group,
we set the development of novel membrane reactor that can conduct dehydrogenation reaction andseparation at the same time as next important technical challenge as important as CCS
technologies, and we have started development.
In development of novel membrane reactor, it is indispensable to develop membranes
that can separate H2 and organic chemical hydride at high temperature. We started to develop
inorganic membranes for this purpose. In addition, inorganic membranes can also separatehydrocarbons and organic solvents, so they are expected as energy-saving separation technologies
that can potentially replace distillation.
As the gas separation membranes, there have not been practical applications forinorganic membranes yet. Since basic research of inorganic membranes in Japan leads the world, it
is not so difficult to establish the world’s top inorganic membrane industry. In Chemical ResearchGroup, research and development are conducted with the goal of establishing inorganic membraneindustry in Japan in 10 years and also establishing the sustainable society with new environmental
and energy technologies. We would like to ask cooperation and support from the readers.

03

R&D Activities

R I TE To da y 2013

Research Planning Group

Recent Activities and Challenges
on Innovative Mitigation Technologies
to Prevent Global Warming

1. Introduction
A drastic reduction of CO2 emissions is required for mitigation of global warming. According to“the Energy Technology Perspective 2012 (ETP2012)”1) issued by International Energy Agency (IEA) in
January, 2012, global emissions of CO2 in 2050 should be decreased to 16Gt CO2/yr, which is almost half of
those in 1990, in order to limit long-term global temperature increase to 2°C. This means that 42 Gt CO2 /yrshould be cut from the baseline emissions in 2050, estimated as 58Gt CO2 /yr. Such a significant reduction
cannot be achieved by a sole technology, but combination of technologies with great potential is required.
In this context, “Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage (CCS)” and “Biomass Utilization” are gaining
attentions as innovative mitigation options. These two options are both cost-competitive and havestabilities against power fluctuation comparing to photovoltaic or wind power.
At RITE, the following four research groups have been carrying out R&D activities focused on
mitigation of global warming. Chemical Research Group is tackling with development of CO2 capture
technology, CO2 Storage Research Group is striving to develop the technologies to store the captured CO2 inthe subsurface, Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology Group is coping with development of
bio-refinery technologies, and System Analysis Group is working on assessment of global warming
mitigation. Before going into the other reports written by each research group, this report provides you ofcomprehensive overview of the latest progress in CCS and biomass utilization as well as the outline of ourresearch activities and future challenges at RITE.
2. Current status of CCS
2-1. Necessity and perspective of CCS
According to the the 2°C Scenario (2DS) stated in the ETP2012, CCS plays an important role asa vital technology to contribute 17% of the total emission reduction throughout the world as of year 2050
(Fig. 1). Also, CCS is the only option currently available that allows industrial sectors, such as iron and steel,cement and natural gas processing, to meet deep emissions reduction goals, while neither renewable nor
nuclear energy can work well in such production processes of those industrial sectors.
As shown in Fig. 2, the cost of CO2 avoided by CCS is more efficient than those of othermeasures like photovoltaic, wind power and so on. Therefore, to meet the 2DS without CCS application to
power generation and other industrial sectors, IEA points out that an additional 40% investments inelectricity are required and it costs an extra USD 2 trillion over the next 40 years. Abandoning CCS as a
mitigation option would result in a significant increase of the cost to achieve the 2DS.
In the meantime, CCS is a viable technology in that some of CO2 capture technologies are
already commercially available and most of them can be applied to various sectors.
Thus, CCS is expected to remain as a critical option in the long term. Accordingly, it is pointed
out that governments should play a decisive role in switching to efficient and low-carbon technologies.
Fig. 3 shows the cumulative amount of CO2 captured by region as described in the 2DS by IEA
and it shows the region which needs to store the most massive amount of CO2 is China, the second one isOECD North America in both 2030 and 2050. China should store 40Gt- CO2, while OECD North America
should 21.2Gt- CO2 by 2050. This means that almost all coal-fired and 36% of gas-fired power
generations should be equipped with CCS in OECD North America and nearly two-thirds of coal-fired
power generations in China as well (Fig. 4). In the 2DS, it is estimated that the total investment for CCS
will be USD 3.6 trillion, equivalent to 300 trillion Japanese yen, by 2050 and it would create an enormous
market if CCS would be deployed.
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R&D Activities Research Planning Group

Contribution to CO2 reduction
Emissions
GtCO2

58GtCO 2

60

239

300
203

WORLD

50

200

176
18 2

150

0

0

2020

2025

2030

2035

2040

2045

2050

PV
lar
So

m
er

fsh

th

ra

al

e
or

)
as
lg

co

as

al)

s

r
Bi
om

lea
Nu
c

on

sh

or

e

ow
er
op

of

lar

2015

So

2010

W
ind

2005

tu

2000

CC

1995

rm

al

-3 8

Ge
ot
he

1990

Time
Years

-7

-2 7

W
ind

-50

Hy
dr

2DS: 16GtCO 2

23

9
-8

0

90
67

25

16

0

10

13 9

49
50

na

20

100

S(

30

106

92

S(

US$ per tonne

42GtCO 2

CC40

CCS:17%, Renewables:24%, End-use energy: 39%, Fuel switching: 12%,
Nuclear: 8%, Power gen.: 1%Fig.
g 1 Contributions of technologies against global warming (IEA “ETP 2012”
2012”)

Fig. 2 Costs of CO2 avoided by technologies
Fig(GCCSI(GCC “the global status of CCS 2012”)

Fig. 3 The cumulative amount of CO2 captured by region (IEA “ETP 2012”)

Fig. 4 Electric power generation capacity equipped with CO2 capture
and the corresponding fraction of capacity by region in 2DS (IEA “ETP 2012”)

2-2. The status of CCS projects
The Global CCS Institute (GCCSI) published “The Global Status of CCS: 2012”2) whichsummarizes the recent CCS projects activities in the world. It explains large-scale integrated projects(LSIPs) are classified into the following six stages based on degree of progress: Identify, Evaluate,
Define, Execute§Operate, and Closure. Referring to the project lists made by GCCSI, the “Identify” isthe stage of site screening, “Evaluate” is site assessment and pre-feasibility study, “Define” is site
selection and feasibility study, “Execute” is project execution, design and installation, and“Operate” means asset operation. The “Closure” is the stage that injection is completed and asset
is decommissioned.
According to the report, there are 16 LSIPs listed in the Execute and Operate stages, ofthe total, eight LSIPs are classified as Execute and other eight LSIPs as Operate. The total number of
LSIPs including the ones at the stages of planning (‘Identify’, ‘Evaluate’, and ‘Define’) amounts to 75(Fig. 5). Nine newly-identified projects were added to the listings, while another eight projects havebeen removed from the list due to being cancelled, put on-hold or restructured compared with ayear ago. Five out of nine newly-identified projects are currently under planning in China. Looking at
the LISPs by region, there are 24 projects in the USA followed by 21 projects in Europe and 11 in
China. Although most of LSIPs in China are classified into ‘Identify’ stage, considering its future
economic growth and energy demands in the country, the future progress of those projects should
be closely watched as mentioned by IEA and others. These storage projects in China areinvestigating Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) options (Fig. 6).
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R&D Activities Research Planning Group25

Number of projects

20

15

10

5

0
United States
EuropeIdentify0

Evaluate
7

Define9

Execute4

Operate
4

Total
24

4

8

7

0

2

21

Australia and New Zealand

0

4

0

1

0

5

Canada

0

1

3

3

1

8

China

9

2

0

0

0

11

Middle East

0

1

2

0

0

3

Other Asia

1

1

0

0

0

2

Africa

0

0

0

0

1

1

Total

14

24

21

8

8

75

Fig. 5 Large scale integrated projects of CCS (GCCSI, “the global status of CCS 2012”)
Enhanced oil recovery (EOR)
Offshore deep saline formations
Offshore depleted oil and gas reservoirs
Not specified

OperateExecuteOnshore deep saline formations
Onshore depleted oil and gas reservoirs
Various storage options being considered

DefineEvaluate

Identify

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Potential volume of CO 2 (Mtpa)

Fig. 6 Potential volume of CO2 stored by types of CCS (GCCSI, “the global status of CCS 2012”)

2-3. The conceptual design and cost estimation of CO2 geological storage
In an effort to deal with the cost of CCS, RITE has been carrying out a research program,“Total System of Zero-emission Coal-fired Power Generation Project” under entrustment from
NEDO. Under this project, the cost estimations of CO2 storage systems in various cases have been
implemented. RITE has been in charge of the conceptual design and cost estimation of CO2
geological storage. RITE has worked out the approximate costs of offshore storage systems in threepromising sites for injecting CO2 into the sub-seabed saline aquifers off the coast of Japan. As aresult of this research, RITE has identified that the total costs of the CO2 storage systems are
between 22 and 31 billion yen on the assumption that the amount of CO2 injected is 1.5 Mt/y and
30 Mt in total (Fig. 7). Also, it has been elucidated that the costs of the storage systems differ
depending on distances from the land and reservoir depths of the storage sites.
1comercial:1.5 million ton-CO2 /year, 20years, 30 million ton-CO22 in total

Site A

Fixed offshore platform(case1-1-a1)

Reservoir depth:1,800m

Site B

Floating offshore platform(case1-1-b1)

Reservoir depth:1,500m

equipment ( injection well, increasing pressure facility )monitoring (operate 20years)
monitoring (closure 50 years)

Platform on land

Site C

Reservoir depths:900m
354 & 1,100m(case1-1-c4)

preliminary survey

preliminary survey
operate ( CO 2 pressure observation )closureCost (100 million yen)Fig. 7 Example estimation of approximate cost of storage systems (RITE “Feasibility study of total ssystem of coal-fired power with no CO2 emission”)

06

R&D Activities Research Planning GroupR I TE To da y 2013

2-4. International standardization for CCS
With a view to the practical application of CCS, cross-national efforts to establish theinternational standardization of CCS has been started under the framework of International
Organization for Standardization (ISO) to enhance the flexibility of products and to ensure quality
and safety of them above a certain level. Once the international standardization is developed, thedeployment of CCS will be accelerated in worldwide in conformity with the new standards, whichmore steadily support the safety and effectiveness of CCS as a measure for CO2 reduction.
It all started from a proposal by Canada to establish a new ISO Technical Committee (TC)for CCS and it was approved as ISO/TC265 by the Technical Management Board (TMB) of ISO in
October, 2011. The first plenary meeting of the TC was held in June, 2012 and the followings were
decided:
The title of the TC is “Carbon dioxide capture, transportation and geological storage”.
The scope of this TC covers construction, operation, environmental planning and management, risk
management, quantification and verification, and related activities in the field of CCS. Five working
groups are set up under the TC: Capture WG, Transportation WG, Storage WG, Cross-Cutting WG,
Quantification and Verification WG and SCC in Canada takes a role as a central secretary.
International standard is developed through open process consisting of Proposal stage,
Preparatory stage, Committee stage, Enquiry stage, Approval stage, and Publication stage.
International standard is developed normally within three years after New Work Item Proposal(NWIP) is submitted (Fig. 8).
RITE was assigned as the secretariat of the Japanese mirror committee of ISO/TC265 (Fig.
9). The meetings of the mirror committee have already been held three times and the meetings ofeach working group have been held several times, respectively.
The International standard has been used as an important tool of international businessstrategy since WTO agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (WTO/TBT) came into effect in 1995
and WTO agreement on Government Procurement (WTO/GAP) in 1996, respectively. It was banned
to produce and to export the products which do not meet the international standards since whenthese agreements became effective. Under such circumstances, European and American companies
had an advantage in that their products met the international standards at that time, while
Japanese companies could not satisfy the standards and Japanese products were excluded frominternational markets. Thus, there were some cases that Japanese companies were forced towithdraw from world markets as they failed to appropriately follow the international
standardization, even though there were some success cases.
Japan should keep closely watching and be involved in the processes to develop theinternational standardization for CCS so that we can promote our original technologies andexpertise in the world.

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R&D Activities Research Planning GroupR I TE To da y 2013

Standard development process and duration1

New standard is
proposed to relevant
technical committee
If proposal is accepted

2Working group of experts
start discussion toprepare a working draft

3

1st working draft sharedwith technical committee
and with ISO CS
If consensus is reachedwithin the TC

4

Draft shared with all ISO
national members, who
are asked to comment
If consensus is reached5

Final draft sent to all
ISO members
If standard is approvedby member vote

6

ISO International
Standard

Fig. 8 Standard development processes (ISO&JISC)

2-5. Challenges for the future in CCS
CCS falls under as so-called external diseconomies. CCS cannot be deployed under the
principle of the market mechanism because it basically does not contribute to growth of productivity
and so on. Therefore, some kinds of systems to internalize external diseconomies should beestablished including development of regulation on CCS-Ready, subsidy system, preferential tax
treatment, feed-in-tariff system and emission trading scheme. The R&D on cost reduction of CCS is
also important to facilitate the installation of CCS. The cost of CCS per ton-CO2 is approximately
7,300 yen/t- CO2 in total. Of the total, approximately 4,200 yen/t- CO2 is for CO2 capture equal toaround 60%. RITE has been aiming for a low-cost CO2 capture technology within the range of 1,500
to 2,000 yen/t- CO2.
In the course of deployment of CCS in Japan, there would be social concerns, “Is it safe
to introduce CCS in Japan, where earthquakes will occur frequently?”, “Doesn’t CCS cause
environmental impact?” Public acceptance is a key to successful CCS implementation, andacquisition of credible data, development of communication tools, human resources development
and close communication with stakeholders are required for success.

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RITE, as local organizer, held the 11th International Conference on Greenhouse Gas
Control Technologies (GHGT-11) at Kyoto International Conference Center from 18th November to
22nd November in 2012. Many experts all over the world participated in this conference anddiscussed CCS related technologies enthusiastically. GHGT-11 is reported as one of this year’s topics
in this volume.
As discussed at GHGT-11, governments should take the leading role to decide, address
and implement the promotion of CCS as IEA and other international organizations point it out.
Decision making and strong support by governments are indispensable as only they can adopt thesocial system to promote CCS even though it is regarded as external diseconomies.
Japanese Mirror Committee of ISO/TC265 and WG
Japanese Mirror Committee of ISO/TC265
chairperson
Prof. Kozo Sato, University of Tokyo

METI
JISC

Secretariat of the
Mirror Committee

RITE

members
The Institute of Applied Energy (IAE)Engineering Assessment Association in Japan (ENEAA)
National Institute for Environmental Studies
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and technology (AIST)New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO)
Japan Coal Energy Center (JCOAL)
Japan Petroleum Development Association
Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC)
Japan Cement Association (JCA)
Research Institute of Innovative technology for the Earth (RITE)
Federation of Electric Power Companies (FEPC)Japan Chemical Industry Association (JCIA)
JAPAN GAS ASSOCIATION (JGA)Japan CCS Co., Ltd. (JCCS)
Japan Iron and Steel Federation (JISF)
Observers
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI)
Ministry of the Environment (MOE)s in Japan
Capture WG

Transport WG

Storage WG

Q&V and
Cross-cutting
issue WG

Fig. 9 Organization of Japanese mirror committee (RITE)

3. Biomass Utilization
With respect to the recent bio-fuel production, biomass-based fuels have more thanquadrupled since 2000, but from a very low starting point, so that bio-fuels made up only 0.5% of
global final liquid fuel demand in 2009 (Fig. 10, 11). Production of Bio-ethanol shares more thanhalf of biomass-based fuels. In terms of the bio-fuel production capacities by region, the UnitedStates (around 60% share) and Brazil (30% share) dominate global bio-ethanol production. These
two countries provide 90% of global bio-ethanol, while the European countries combined provided
around 60% of the global bio-diesel production (Fig. 12, 13).
According to IEA, liquid bio-fuels provide 18% of global liquid fuel demand in the 2DS in
2050, with around 70% from BTL plants and 30% from advanced ethanol plants using
lignocellulosic feedstock (Fig. 14). Bio-butanol, an alcohol with similar production pathways as
ethanol, can be a promising alternative to bio-ethanol, since it can be, due to its hydrophobic
nature, transported in pipelines.
Capturing CO2 from bio-fuel production plants and storing it underground becomes anattractive CO2 mitigation option in the 2DS: during its growth the crop sequesters CO2 from theatmosphere, which is captured in the bio-fuel plant and then stored underground. This cycle results
in a removal of CO2 from the atmosphere and leads to “negative” emissions for the use of
bio-energy in combination with CCS (BECCS). In the 2DS, around 1.3 Gt CO2 is captured frombio-fuel plants in 2050, which corresponds to around 3% of the total annual CO2 reductions in
2050 (Fig. 15).

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Fig. 10 Global final liquid fuel supply (IEA “ETP 2012”)

Fig. 11 Global bio-fuel production (IEA “ETP 2012”)

Fig. 12 Global production capacity of bio-diesel (IEA “ETP 2012”)

Fig. 13 Global production capacity of bio-ethanol (IEA “ETP 2012”)

Fig. 14 Global liquid fuel supply in the 2DS and the 4DS (IEA “ETP 2012”)

Fig. 15 CO2 captured in the fuel transformation sector in the 2DS (IEA “ETP 2012”)

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4. The challenges for future in RITE
Since its establishment in 1990, RITE has been implementing researches on various
innovative environmental technologies. In light of high-potentials and social needs, RITE focuses on
three specific areas of expertise for its research, which are CCS technology, bio-refinery technology
and assessment of global warming mitigation. Development and practical application of CCS
technology is expected to open the way to substantial reduction of CO2 emission. Bio-refinery is arenewable and sustainable energy, and further expanded use of bio-energy is a real need. And theurgent need for the assessment of global warming mitigation has been heightened to provide
scientifically supporting data for political decision-making process on energy and environment after
the accident at TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in March, 2011.
To be a globally competitive research institute, one of RITE’s primary missions is totransfer the outcomes of our research to private companies and to make the technologies widely
available in industries and society. Therefore, in parallel with implementing its ongoing projects,
RITE needs to work out a new research themes and to achieve excellent outcomes so as to keep
contributing to the international society in the future as well. Also, RITE should foster and develop
new innovative technologies with making use of its own research potentials. It is an essential
challenge inherent to RITE as a research institute.
In order to set up a new research target, RITE has investigated and discussed various
research themes such as marine renewable energy, geo-engineering, geothermal energy, Enhanced
Geothermal System using CO2 and so on. Eventually, RITE has determind to shed new light on a
research on “Enhanced Geothermal System using CO2" as a new flagship project.
Enhanced Geothermal System using CO2 is a technology to generate electricity utilizing
hot CO2 extracted from underground storage reservoir (Fig. 16). Using generated electricity for CCS
plant or selling it can provide incentives to promotion of CCS. This technology can control thepressure of underground storage reservoir by extracting CO2 from the reservoir and is also
recognized as one of the attractive measures to ensure safety of CCS. Some research institutions in
the USA have already started to deal with this technology. Although CO2 has some disadvantages,
for example, specific heat of CO2 is smaller than that of water, it has many advantages in that there
is little precipitation of the scale and it can generate electricity at lower temperature comparing withwater. Also, CO2 works as a promising heat medium for geothermal power generation (Fig. 17).
Property• Technology of geothermal power generation utilizing CO2 reserved underground.
• Utilizing generated electrical power for CCS plant or for sale contributes
to paying expense of CCS project.
• LBNL in USA leads the research.
• LBNL has finished basic laboratorial research and is applying to DOE
for a field test of actual injection to undergroundFig. 16 The concept of enhanced geothermal system using CO2 (RITE)

Water

CO2

ChemistryPowerful solvent for rock
Non-polar fluid, poor
minerals, lots of dissolution
solvent for rock minerals
and precipitation

MobilityHigh viscosity, high density

Low viscosity andmoderate density

Heat transmission Large specific heat

Small specific heat

Small compressibility,
Welbore circulation
modest expansivity

Large compressibility andexpansivity

Fluid losses

Expansive and unwanted

Credits for GHG mitigation

Availability

Widespread, limited in arid GCS key enabling
regions
element

Power plant

Higher capital costs, larger More compact, lower
footprint
capital cost

Fig. 17 Comparing CO2 with water as a heat transmission fluid (LBNL and et al.)11

R&D Activities Research Planning GroupR I TE To d a y 2013

5. Conclusion
CCS is the only technology on the horizon today that would enable industrial sectors tomeet deep emissions reduction goals and will be expected to remain as a vital option in the longterm. CCS is expected to be deployed all over the world, especially in China and North America. It isin urgent need to establish regulation, subsidy and other systems by governments and to lower thecost of CCS so as to facilitate the deployment of CCS. Firm policy decision and enhancement ofgovernment supports are in pressing need for implementation of CCS.
As multilateral efforts to establish international standardization of CCS has alreadystarted, Japan should keep closely track of progress of the standardization on CCS to have ourtechnologies and expertise evaluated appropriately.
RITE has decided to start working on a new challenge on "hot dry rock geothermal
generation" and will strive to set it up as an official research project.
From November 26 to December 8, COP 18/CMP 8 (the Conference of the 18th Parties
to the UNFCCC and the 8th session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of theParties to the Kyoto Protocol) were held in Doha, Qatar. COP and CMP decisions including the ADP(Ad-Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action) work plan were adopted as
the “Doha Climate Gateway”. As for emission limitation in the second commitment period,
developed countries and developing countries could not reach an agreement. Japan has taken aposition of not participating in the second commitment period and it was reflected in the amended
Annex B. It is very important to establish international frameworks for implementing measuresagainst global warming and concrete steps to achieve consensus among the nations should be
progressed. It is not easy to prospect the energy or economy in future, but promotion of the R&D is
as an integral and indispensable part of approaches to reverse climate change. RITE will continue tolead the way in the development of innovative technologies with an aim to achieve the practicalapplication of those technologies in industries in years to come.
References
1）IEA, “Energy Technology Perspective 2012” (2012)
2）GCCSI “The Global Status of CCS: 2012” (2012)12

R&D Activities

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Systems Analysis Group

Analysis on Japan’s Energy
and Environment Strategy
1. Introduction
Radical reforms and reviews for Japan’s energy and environment strategy have beenrequired due to the severe accident of the Fukushima-daiichi nuclear power plant caused by theGreat East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. Energy is a basis of our life and economy. CO2 emissions
have strong relationship to energy use, and therefore, energy issues and global warming issues are
inseparable so far.
The Japanese government established several committees for the strategy reform, which
include the Committee for Verifying Power Plant Costs in the Energy and Environment Council, acommittee under the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy of Ministry of Economy, Trade andIndustry (METI), a committee under Ministry of Environment (MOE), and a committee under the
Atomic Energy Commission. Plural “Options for Energy and the Environment” were developed by
the Energy and Environment Council through many discussions in such committees. RITE analyzed
economic impacts for the “Options for Energy and the Environment” by using an energy-economy
model that had been developed by RITE, according to the requests of the Japanese government.
The Energy and Environment Council, the Japanese government, proposed the “Options
for Energy and the Environment”1) with the analysis results for economic impacts for each option on
June 29, 2012, and wide discussions were deployed to the public. After the discussions, thegovernment decided the “Innovative Strategy for Energy and the Environment”2) on the Energy andEnvironment Council on September 14, 2012. The report for the strategy described “all policy
resources will be injected to be possible for achieving zero of nuclear power generations in 2030s”.
However, the report was introduced on the National Strategy Council on September 18, but was notdecided in the council. The cabinet council did not also decide the report of ‘Innovative Strategy for
Energy and the Environment’, and did decide only a short sentence regarding the future plan forenergy and environment strategy. One of the reasons avoiding the clear decision will be that thecabinet recognizes there is not a clear pathway to “achieve zero of nuclear power generations in
2030s”.
For global warming response measures, the “Innovative Strategy for Energy and theEnvironment” describes “strong promotions of energy efficiency improvements and renewableenergy increases both in domestic and abroad correspond to global warming response measures.
Greenhouse gas emission reductions will be promoted with strong supports of the government fromthe viewpoint of long-term.”
The cause of the severe accident of the nuclear power plant remains obscure, and it isdifficult to make a clear middle- and long-term energy strategy. The difficult issues how to balance
3E of stable energy supply and energy security, economy, and environment remain. Further
considerations including achievability are required with considerations of the economic impacts(Fig. 1).
This report summarizes the economic analyses for the “Options for Energy and theEnvironment” particularly analyses of RITE.

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EconomyHigh cost of energy will induce
economic damages. Well balanced
installations of renewable energies
should be considered.
Some of energy saving measures will
induce economic growth, but someothers will induce economic damages.

Safety (S)Energysecurity
LNG use is an important option.
However, excessive dependence
on LNG will induce vulnerabilities
on energy security.

The highest priority is safety.
However, there are no zero risks.
Needs of high safety systems
including several measures.

Not only safety of nuclear power
but also all of economy, energy
security and environment relate
to “safety”.

Environment
Actually the Kyoto framework
is ending. Continuous GHG
emission reduction efforts areimportant.

Fig. 1 Balance of 3E (Economy, Energy, Environment) and S (Safety)

2. Overview of the options of Strategy for Energy and the Environment
We summarize the “Options for Energy and the Environment.” The following three
options, based on the dependences on nuclear energy, are presented by the Energy andEnvironment Council.
Option 1 is “0% nuclear power” scenario of achieving zero of nuclear power generations
by 2030, where the shares of renewable energy and fossil fuels power generations are about 35%
and 65%, respectively. PV systems are installed in 12 million houses by 2030, where even if thehouses have weak earthquake-resistance strengths, they are reinforced against earthquakes andthen PV systems are installed in them. The wind power plants are built in the areas corresponding to
2.2 times as Tokyo metropolitan area. The strict regulations of energy savings, such as theprohibitions of the inefficient electric appliances, are also introduced in this option.
Option 2 is “15% nuclear power” scenario of achieving 15% nuclear power generation
share at 2030, where the lifetimes of nuclear plants are assumed to be 40 years and new nuclear
plants are not built during the periods. In this option, the share of renewable energy power
generations is about 30%. PV systems are installed in 10 million houses, all of which meet thestandard of earthquake-resistance strength. The wind power plants are built in the areas
corresponding to 1.6 times as Tokyo metropolitan area. The share of fossil fuels power generation isabout 55%.
Option 3 is “20%-25% nuclear power” scenario of achieving about 20%-25% nuclear
power generation share in 2030, where the shares of the renewable energy and fossil fuels power
generations about 25%-30% and 50%, respectively. This option requires new and additional
facilities of nuclear power generations by 2030. Through continuous efforts for enhancements ofsafety and security of the nuclear power, the improvements in the currently negative position to
nuclear power are important for achieving this option.
The determined “Innovative Strategy for Energy and the Environment” describes the energy mix in
2030 nearly close to that of the “15% nuclear power scenario.” However, substantially because thedetermined strategy brings zero nuclear power generations at specific target years into view, thestrategy is qualitatively similar to the “0% nuclear power scenario.”14

R&D Activities Systems Analysis GroupR I TE To da y 2013

The analysis on how the economic impacts are estimated for each option was conductedby using energy-economic models. The economic analysis by the government was performed byusing the four models developed by four research institutes. The economic models excluding DEARS
model by RITE are single-country models focused on Japan. On the other hand, the DEARS modelhas world 18 disaggregated regions including Japan, which can explicitly evaluate the impacts ofinternationally sectoral shifts among 18 regions thorough the increases in energy prices and theintensities of the CO2 emission constraints in Japan. In addition, because the DEARS model has thebottom-up structures for power generations by energy source, the model can reflect the power
generation costs by energy source (as well as KEO model developed by Prof. Nomura of Keio
University). This report describes the outlooks of economy and CO2 emission reductions for the three
options, based on the results of the DEARS model.
Table 1 shows the main assumptions of the options for economic analyses, requested by
the Japanese government.
Table. 1 Assumptions of economic analysis for the options of the Energy and Environment Council
NUC 0%

Reference case(Business
as Usual: BAU)

Option 1:
With the intention of achieving
zero nuclear power

2030

NUC 20%

NUC 15%
Option 2:
After reducing dependence on nuclear power, reviewing
based on results of approaches for renewable energy
and strengthening nuclear safety, etc.

NUC 25%

Option 3:
With the intention of keeping
a certain level of dependence
on nuclear power while reducing it

2030

2030

2010: 128million people, 2020: 124million people, 2030:117million people

Population

GDP

2010-2020:
1.1 p.a.
2020-2030:
0.8 p.a.

Electricity share(2030)

Keeping theshares of
2010

Power
generation

2010-2030:+0.15 p.a.

Calculated endogenously in the model

Nuclear 0%
Fossil fuel 62%
Renewable 38%

Nuclear 15%
Fossil fuel 54%
Renewable 31%

Nuclear 20%
Fossil fuel 48%
Renewable 31%

Nuclear 25%
Fossil fuel 48%
Renewable26%

Calculated endogenously in the model (Electricity demands change by the differencesof electricity priceson the assumptions of both electricity shares and CO2 emission reductions for each option)

Energy-related
CO2 emissions(compared to 1990)

2020
2030

+2%
−6%

−2%
−21%

−5%
−22%

-

−7%
−23%

−9%
−23%

−6%
−25%

−7%
−25%

GHG emissions(compared to 1990)

2020
2030

−10%
−25%

Figures 2 and 3 show electricity generations and capacities, respectively, in 2030 for the
options. Here there are the following four important points about the assumptions of the options.
The first point is that large potentials of electricity savings are assumed in all the options. Even in
the current Basic Energy Plan, the estimated power generation in 2030 was about 1200 TWh, while
the large potentials of energy savings were assumed. However, the assumed potentials of energy
savings in the options are much larger than those of the current Basic Energy Plan. This point will bementioned more details afterward.
The second point is that all the options assume the large increases in renewable

15

R I TE To da y 2013

R&D Activities Systems Analysis Groupenergies. The current share of renewable energy is about 10% in 2010, where excluding hydropower the share of other renewable energy is only 2%. However, even the 25% scenario includes
the assumptions of the renewable energy share of about 25% in 2030. The share in the 0%
scenario reaches up to about 35%, where the great extensions of renewable are required forachieving the scenario.
The third is that the considerable increases in auto-producer’s power plants andcogeneration are assumed. These increases are important. But the currently small diffusions ofcogeneration are explained by the reasons that the cogeneration systems are not well linked to heat
demands and the cogeneration costs are high. The considerable increases in cogeneration require
the consideration on these problems in detail. The fourth is that the electricity shares with low
capacity factors are assumed. This is because of the outlooks of both the increases in renewableenergy power plants with low capacity factors and the considerable decreases in electricity
demands. The low capacity factors also result from the increases in non-operating fossil fuel thermal
power plants because of the rapid changes in electricity shares. As low capacity factors result in highcosts, the scenarios with the low factors assume the inefficient usages of the plants.

Current energy
plan: 1,200TWh(Renewable: 20%)

Electricity generation (TWh/yr)

1,200
1,000

Biomass

800

Hydro&geoth.
Wind

600

PV
400

Nuclear
Oil

200

LNG

Coal

0
Reference
2010

NUC0%

NUC15%

NUC20%

NUC25%

Options for Energy and Environment, 2030

Fig. 2 Power generations scenarios in 2030 for each option

400

Power capacity (GW)

350
300

Other RE

250

Hydro
Nuclear

200

Oil

150

LNG

100

Coal
CHP

50
0

2010

Reference

Fig. 3 Capacity scenarios in 2030 for each option

NUC0%

NUC15%

NUC20%

NUC25%

Year 2030
16

R&D Activities Systems Analysis GroupR I TE To da y 2013

3. Economic analysis on the Options of Energy and the Environment
As mentioned previously, Table 1 shows the main assumptions for each option. The
assumed economic growth is about 1% per year (moderate growth scenario) for 2010-2030. The
costs of power generations for each source are based on the estimations of the Committee for
Verifying Power Plant Costs3).
For the economic analysis, we calculate the reference case that is a standard of themodel analysis. The main indicators such as GDP, power generations and CO2 emissions, determined
endogenously in the model, correspond to the government’s assumptions in Table 1 in such amanner to adjust the parameters such as the total factor productivity. The evaluations of thedifferences compared to the reference case are important for the interpretations of the model
results.
The above assumptions are the assumptions of the options proposed by the government.
The GDPs in themselves (or the GDPs compared to the base year) are dependent on theassumptions of the baseline. These GDPs play only a minor role in the economic analysis. For carefulanalysis, the assumptions of the GDPs should be based on the statistical rationales in terms ofvalidity, probability and consistency. It is noted that the GDPs in the baseline do not derive from theeconomic models.
We analyze the economic impacts of the options, using the parameters adjusted for thebaseline and for the constraints of the electricity shares and the CO2 emission targets for the
options. The constraints on the power generations, the government’s assumptions in Fig. 2, are notused for this analysis. Alternatively the CO2 emissions constraints are employed. The power
generations are determined endogenously in the model. Thus, the power generations in the baseline
correspond to the government’s assumptions but those in the options do not necessarily correspondto the assumptions in Fig. 1. (The electricity shares by energy source in the model are identical to
the government’s assumptions both in the baseline and the options.)
4. Impacts on electricity charges
This chapter describes the impacts on the electricity charges for each option. Fig. 4 showsthe estimated domestic electricity charges. Even in the 25% scenario, the electricity charges increaseby 10%-15% compared to the baseline (with same electricity shares as 2010), because the sharesof renewable energy increase. The charges for the 15% and 0% scenarios increase by 20%-25%
and 35%-40%, respectively. The increases in the electricity charges lead to more electricity savings.
However, more stringent mitigation efforts, including more electricity savings, are required forachieving the CO2 emission reductions targets for each option. In order to achieve the targets, theestimated electricity prices increase by 110%-120% in the 0% scenario, in the case that fossil fuelpower plants are imposed on carbon tax and then the tax are added to the electricity price. In thiscase, the increases in the electricity charges are lower than those in the prices, because these priceincreases result in additional energy savings. Nevertheless the electricity charges increase by
90%-105%. The increases in industrial electricity charges are much higher than those in domestic
ones (Fig. 5).
The RITE’s results are based on the estimations by the Committee for Verifying Power
Plant Costs3) in such that the renewable energy costs steadily decrease during the periods. If thecosts do not decrease like those estimations, heavier electricity charges will be estimated.

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R&D Activities Systems Analysis GroupR I TE To da y 2013

Effects of price increases

140%
120%

122%
Effects of savings

106%

100%

83%

80%

79%

73%

69%

60%

70%
61%

40%

29%

20%

22%

19%

15%

0%
-20%

-17%

-10%

-10%

-9%

NUC0%

NUC15%

NUC20%

NUC25%-40%

Effects of price increases(w.o. CO2 emission
constraints)
Effects of savings (w.o.
CO2 emission
constraints)
Electricity charges(nominal)

Electricity charges(nominal) (w.o. CO2
emission constraints)

Fig. 4 Domestic electricity charges in 2030 (including the effects of electricity price increases and electricity savings)

140%

Effects of price increases

135%

120%

110%

100%

Effects of savings

92%
86%

80%

76%

78%

71%

60%

65%

40%

Effects of savings (w.o.
CO2 emission constraints)

28%

20%

21%

19%

15%

0%
-20%
-40%

Effects of price increases(w.o. CO2 emission
constraints)

-25%

NUC0%

-16%

-15%

-13%

NUC15%

NUC20%

NUC25%

Electricity charges(nominal)

Electricity charges(nominal) (w.o. CO2
emission constraints)

Fig. 5 Industrial electricity charges in 2030 (including the effects of electricity price increases and electricity savings)

5. Impacts on macro economy
The domestic electricity price increases result in consumption decreases. The industrial
electricity price increases induce price increases of goods and services, hurt the companies’ profitsand decrease the investments. Fig. 6 shows the impacts of the whole economy for each option. The
RITE’s results reveal that GDPs in 2030 in the 15%-25% scenarios decrease by 4.4%-4.9% relative
to the reference case. The GDP in the 0% scenario decrease by 7.4%, considerable worse than thosein the other scenarios. Because in all the options the stringent energy saving policies and theenormous increases in renewable energy are introduced, the large economic impacts are estimated.
In addition, the results indicate that the smaller shares of nuclear power generations are assumed,
the severer economic damages are estimated.

NUC0%

NUC15%

NUC20%-6.6 Trillion Yen-6.0 Trillion Yen

NUC25%

0

Reletive to the baseline (%)-1-2-8.7 Trillion Yen-4.6 Trillion Yen-3-4-29.8 Trillion Yen-28.0 Trillion Yen-26.6 Trillion Yen-5without CO2 emission
constraints
Ტimpacts only fromelectricity shares)
with CO2 emission
constraints-6-7-45.1 Trillion Yen-8Fig. 6 Impacts on GDP in 2030 (including effects of electricity shares and CO2 emission constraints)

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R&D Activities Systems Analysis GroupR I TE To d a y 2013

6. Costs of CO2 emission reductions
GHG emission reductions in 2030 in the three options are about 23%-25% relative to 1990.
The “Innovative Strategy for Energy and the Environment” states that the target of the Japanese GHG
emissions in 2030 decrease by about 20% compared to 1990 emission levels.
The CO2 marginal abatement costs for the reduction targets (23%-25% reductions relative to 1990) of theoptions are about 34-41 thousand Yen per ton of CO2 in the 15% and 20%-25% scenarios. In the zero
scenario, the costs reach about 40-55 thousand Yen per ton of CO2 because the more enhancements ofenergy savings are assumed.
On the other hand, the international levels of carbon prices are $30-50 per ton of CO2 by 2030,
estimated by the previous studies. Although the EU sounds highly motivated for tackling the GHG emissions
reductions, even in the EU the outlooks of the carbon prices are €36-61 per ton of CO2 according to the EU
reports. According to the World Energy Outlook (WEO) 2011 Edition by the International Energy Agency(IEA), the estimated prices in 2030 are $40 per ton of CO2 in the new policies scenario. The estimatedcarbon prices of all the options provided by the Japanese government reach about ten times as high as
those international ones. Such high carbon prices will induce the decreases in domestic consumptions. The
significant differences in the prices between Japan and other countries facilitate the overseas shifts ofJapanese industry, particularly in the energy-intensive sectors. These shifts do not necessarily decrease theglobal CO2 emissions. On the contrary, these shifts probably increase the global emissions because of to the
production increases at the inefficient countries in terms of CO2 emissions.
Needless to say, it is important to tackle the decreases in GHG emissions including CO2
emissions. Too extreme measures, however, induce serious economic damages. Because the overseas shifts
of industry decrease the effectiveness of the emission reductions at a global level, the appropriate measures
are required for tackling the global warming issue.
7. Outlooks of electricity savings in the Options for Energy and the Environment
Fig. 7 indicates the strong positive relationship between growths of GDP and power
generations. The GDP elasticity of the power generations is just 1.0 for 2000-2010. (The elasticity during for
1990-2010 is higher.) As mentioned previously, the government’s options assume that the economic
growth rate is about 1%/year for 2010-2030. This assumption leads to the GDP increases in 2030 by+21% compared to 2010. If the GDP elasticity of 1.0, corresponding to the historical trends during theprevious ten years, is adopted, the assumption of the power generations increases by +21% in 2030 ishighly probable. However, the increase in electricity generation estimated by the government is only 3% in
BAU. Thus, the “Options for Energy and the Environment” include the considerable large potentials of theenergy and electricity savings. These assumptions on the energy and electricity savings are left outside ofthe economic analysis by the economic model. This corresponds to the assumptions that the power
generation changes from +21% to +3% (compared to 2010) can be achieved without economic damages.
The energy and electricity savings greatly improved after the Fukushima nuclear power plant
accident. It was reported that the national average of the energy and electricity savings during the summer(July and August) of 2012, for example, reached about 6% in terms of kWh (estimated by the Agency for
Natural Resources and Energy, including the corrections for climate and economic conditions). However,currently, the economic impacts of those energy and electricity savings are uncertain. Assuming that these
economic impacts of all the savings are zero and the effects of them are continued, the effects of thesavings are expected to be at most 5% on the annual average. Even if it is acceptable that the continuous
savings of about 5% after the Fukushima accident, in the savings by power generations changes from
+21% to +3%, are interpretable, the economic impacts by the rest of the savings for the options should be
investigated carefully. However, this economic analysis, requested by the Japanese government, does notconsider the above economic damages. Therefore, we should recognize that the economic analysis for the“Options for Energy and the Environment” results in the underestimated economic damages.

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R&D Activities Systems Analysis GroupR I TE To d a y 2013

GDP of the Growth Strategy scenario

140
130

GDP
Power generations

GDP of the Modest Growth Strategy scenario(the government’s reference case)[corresponding to power generations
assumed by using the GDP elasticity of 1.0]

Y2010=100120
110Power generations of the government’s options in
the Modest Growth Strategy scenario

100
90Power generations of the options(Nuclear power 0%)

80

70

1990

2000

2010

2020

2030

Fig. 7 Assumptions of GDP and power generations

8. Final remarks
The Japanese government decided the ‘Innovative Strategy for Energy and theEnvironment’ for our middle- and long-term energy supply and demand strategy after the severe
accident of Fukushima-daiichi nuclear power plant attacked the Great East Japan Earthquake andTsunami. RITE conducted the economic analyses of the “Options for Energy and the Environment”,
requested by the Japanese government. However, during the discussions toward the decision of thestrategy, objective and science-based discussions have been lacked in many times, and it is doubtfulthat politicians and general public have understood the economic analysis results.
Many public has a negative position to nuclear power after the Fukushima-daiichi
nuclear power accident, and therefore, it is impossible to continue past strategies to increase
nuclear power plants. Under the situation, further energy efficiency improvements and large increase
in renewable energies are necessary. However, the “Options for Energy and the Environment” andthe “Innovative Strategy for Energy and the Environment” by the government assume drastic energy
efficiency improvements and increase in renewable energies which levels indicate extremely difficult
to be achieved economically as discussed in this paper. While a strong positive relationship between
GDP growth and electricity demand increase has been observed, the scenarios of the government
for the relationship are assumed to be disappeared in the future. There have not been any
considerations how to achieve such a decoupling. But the government provided the green growthscenario, which energy uses and CO2 emissions decrease while GDP increases, and which all people
desire. Large savings of electricity have been achieved since March 11, 2011. However, the gap
between the assumed electricity savings even in baseline of the options and the strategy by thegovernment is still large, and deeper discussions are needed to fill the gap.
The “Innovative Strategy for Energy and the Environment” states “all policy resources
will be injected to be possible for achieving zero of nuclear power generations in 2030s”. However,
we need to make a better strategy within our limited resources considering several trade-offs. To
inject “all policy resources” into a single purpose will induce large negative impacts on our society
in the future. A well balanced energy and environment strategy with achievability are required.
RITE will continue to analyze energy and environment strategies subjectively using several
mathematical models which have been developed, and will provide the analysis results for a better
policy making. RITE will also propose more effective measures with reality for more fruitful future.
References
1) Energy and Environment Council of the Japanese government, “Options for Energy and theEnvironment”. http://www.npu.go.jp/policy/policy09/pdf/20120629/20120629_1.pdf (2012)2) Energy and Environment Council of the Japanese government, “Innovative Strategy for Energy and theEnvironment”. http://www.npu.go.jp/policy/policy09/pdf/20120914/20120914_1.pdf (2012)3) Energy and Environment Council of the Japanese government, “Reports of the Committee for Verifying
Power Plant Costs”. http://www.npu.go.jp/policy/policy09/archive02_hokoku.html (2012)20

R&D Activities

R I TE To da y 2013

Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology Group

Global Biorefinery Trends and Research Overview

1. Introduction
The biorefinery is a relatively recent concept proposed by, among others, the U.S.
Department of Energy (DOE) to encompass technologies and industries that enable production ofchemicals and liquid fuels from biomass. The biorefinery, along with information technology, hasbeen a key strategic scientific mission of the U.S. since 1990s, with advancement of technologies
and industries relevant to the implementation of the biorefinery vision a priority U.S. policy toachieve a sustainable 21st century society less dependent on fossil resources.
The biorefinery is estimated to have the potential to generate as much as $230 billion by2020 and $300 billion by 2030 (World Economic Forum 2011), with financial investment projected
to exceed total investments in IT businesses during the 1990s. Consequently, manybiorefinery-related venture businesses established since the second half of the 1990s havesucceeded in attracting funds through stock listing over several years.
However, a rapid expansion of biofuel production in the form of large-scale bioethanol
production in the U.S. was widely blamed for a worldwide surge in food crop prices, sincecorn-based feedstocks necessary to sustain the bioethanol production meant that there was a directcompetition between bioethanol and the global supply of a major food staple. Further technologicaldevelopments that hence became necessary to avoid this competition are starting to ensure that
non-food agricultural residues (e.g. corn stover) and so-called energy grasses (e.g. switch grass)around the world comprise the major component of biorefinery feedstocks.
Biomass of plant origin enables a virtuous carbon-neutral cycle of plant growing,processing, harvesting, and burning, meaning that its use does not lead to net changes in the levelof atmospheric CO2. For this reason, it is greatly anticipated that biofuels will provide cleaner fuels
through effective reduction of CO2 emissions.
2. Current state of U.S. bioethanol production and next-generation biofuels
World bioethanol production in 2012 was estimated to be 22.5 billion gallons (F.O. Licht,etc). Even though U.S. bioethanol production was somewhat decreased as a result of the 50-year
peak in U.S. corn price after drought damage, it still accounted for ca. 60 % (13 billion gallons) of
the global production, and demand is projected to continue to grow following the commencementof the sale of E15 (ethanol-gasoline blends containing up to 15 percent ethanol by volume). Given
that as much as 40 % of current U.S. corn crop goes into ethanol production, a shift from grains tocellulosic biomass as raw material is urgently required. The U.S. government has consequently
strongly backed biofuel projects which can utilize agricultural residues such as corn stover andso-called energy grasses such as switchgrass.
2-1. Renewable Fuel Standard 2
To increase the production and consumption of renewable fuels in the U.S., thegovernment not only encouraged a feedstock change to avoid undesirable competition with the
food-supply but accordingly modified Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). The original RFS of 2005 was
upgraded to RFS2 in the Energy Independent and Security Act of 2007. A turning point to non-foodcellulosic materials that should have come around 2010~2011 (Fig. 1, left) never happened,however. On the contrary feedstock conversion progress fully stopped. Thereafter, the U.S.
Environmental Protect Association (EPA) has had to revise downward each consequent year's
targeted production of cellulosic ethanol from after 2010 (Fig. 1, right).

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R&D Activities Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology GroupR I TE To da y 2013

600

400
Millions of gallons

Cellulosic biofuels

500

EISA2007
300
RFS2
200
100
0

2010

2011
Year

2012

References: Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA2007) Renewable Fuel Standard(RFS2)
Fig. 1 Bioethanol production in U.S.

2-2. Current state and challenges of cellulosic ethanol production
Cost-competitiveness of cellulosic ethanol production has not been achieved despite
considerable research funding into technology development by the U.S. government. The two key
processes that constitute cellulosic ethanol production, pre-treatment and fermentation entail thegeneration of side products collectively called fermentation inhibitors in pre-treatment process. The
impact that these inhibitors exert on the efficiency of the latter ethanol fermentation process largely
determine the efficiency of each cellulosic ethanol production process (Fig. 2).
Under milder pre-treatment conditions (temperature, time, etc.), a relatively large amountof cellulase enzyme used for cellulose saccharification is necessary. Since enzyme cost is a significant
cost factor, it directly impacts the overall ethanol production cost. Conversely, harsher pre-treatment
conditions lower the amount of cellulase enzyme necessary but generate fermentation inhibitors
more liberally, and the efficiency of ethanol fermentation accordingly falls sharply.
Trade-offs between the severity of pre-treatment and the amount cellulose enzyme
necessary must therefore be made (Fig. 3). Presently, the cost of cellulase enzyme is estimated at $3〜5 per gallon ethanol produced, making cellulosic ethanol economically inefficient (ethanol pricecalculated from the market price of gasoline is ca. $3).
Several attempts to improve the situation, including an engineered approach to inhibitor
removal, improved inhibitor tolerance of fermentative microorganisms, etc., have not succeeded insolving the cost performance problems to date. This has resulted in an international major oilcompany cancellation of a previously announced large-scale plant construction of cellulosic ethanol
project in the U.S. Other leading companies have also postponed proposed plant operations until
after 2013.

Fermentation
InhibitorsOO

Non-food
Biomass

CHO

OH

Pre-treatment(High pressure/temperature
Enzymaticsaccharification

C6 sugars
C5 sugars

6
5

Inhibitethanol fermentation

Mixed sugarsarsFermentation

Bioethanol
Bioe
ethanol

Fig. 2 Obstacles to Industrialization: Fermentation Inhibitors

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R&D Activities Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology GroupNon-food biomass

R I TE To da y 2013

Pre-treatment

C6 & C5 sugars

Enzymaticsaccharification

C6

C5

CH 2 OH
O
OH
OH

Severe pre-treatment

OH

OH

OH
HO

O

HOH 2 COH

Mild pre-treatment

trade off
Necessitates smaller amountsof enzyme.

Necessitates more enzyme.

Generates more fermentation
inhibitors.

Generates less fermentation
inhibitors.

Fig. 3 Obstacles to Industrialization: Saccharification costs

2-3. Outlook of next generation biofuels
2-3
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) biofuels roadmap report of 2011, biofuels
can provide up to 27% of world transportation fuels by 2050. Based on these estimates, the next
generation biofuel, butanol, receives remarkable attention in the biofuels sector. Compared to ethanol,
butanol exhibits several advantages; it has high-energy content while being transportable via existing
pipelines after mixing at oil factories with gasoline due to its low water solubility. Industrial production of
butanol began early in the 20th by the fermentation method (ABE fermentation) using species of
Clostridium bacteria and biomass sugars, and then moved to simpler and cheaper distillationfrom-petroleum methods of refining butanol after the 1950s. In recent years, the fermentation frombiomass resources has attracted attention once more as biofuel promotion has gained traction.
There are two main approaches to efficient biobutanol production process under current
development. The first is the improvement of traditional ABE fermentation process while the other one
introduces biosynthesis pathways into industrial microbes such as Escherichia coli, yeasts, etc. to produce
biobutanol. RITE previously announced introduction of butanol synthesis genes into E. coli in a pioneering
study. The more recently announced possibility of isobutanol synthesis through intermediate chemicals of
the branched-chain amino acid biosynthesis triggered technology developments in a variety of microbes
from these intermediates.
At present, major oil and chemicals companies, ventures companies, etc., have recognized theearly industrialization potential of the biobutanol business, where non-food biomass resources should play
an important role in future large-scale production. Noteworthy is the issue of fermentation inhibitors, whichmust be overcome also in biobutanol production.
3. Green chemicals
The field of green (renewable) chemical production via bioprocessing greatly differs in outlook
from that of biofuels. Although green chemical production requires more advanced technologies to produce
compared to those required for biofuels, a variety of high-value product groups and integrated market sizeare predicted and an easier business model than that of biofuels seems can be created. The future market
size of green chemical is estimated to generate $100 billion by 2020, and many ventures have been
established the world over. Several venture companies with cellulosic ethanol production as the main
business plan changed plans to produce green chemicals as an immediate goal. In these business plans,
they use C6 sugars derived from food-based biomass like corn as a raw material because economical
volumes for green chemicals are considerably smaller than those required for biofuels, leading to little
criticism. Nevertheless, the use of non-food biomass like corn stover or switchgrass is eventually an essential
requirement for sustainability, just as with biofuels.

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R&D Activities Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology Group

4. Technology development: the RITE Bioprocess (Growth-Arrested Bioprocess)
RITE has developed an efficient biomass utilization technology based on intrinsic
characteristics of coryneform bacteria. The so-called "RITE Bioprocess" (a growth-arrested
bioprocess) has so far enabled elevated productivities of green chemicals and biofuels. This
pioneering technology enables the simultaneous utilization of mixed sugars from cellulosic biomassin biorefinery settings. In a collaboration with a private company, its application in a cellulosic
ethanol production system earned the Grand Prize at the 18th Nikkei Global Environment Award(see RITE Today 2009). What is more, the process has evoked the interest of international academia
and their researchers, earning our group leader the 2011 fellowship award from The Society for
Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology (SIMB), the first Japanese scientist to receive theprestigious award (see Topics). Starting in 2011, collaboration work on cellulosic biofuels with NREL
(National Renewable Energy Laboratory) founded by U.S. Department of Energy has yieldedinteresting results (see later).
Moreover a research group based in Germany has followed our footsteps and carried out
additional research using coryneform bacteria; they have independently confirmed the capabilities
and attributes of our innovative bioprocess, which is characterized particularly by a clear separation
between product production and the growth phase of the bacteria catalysts. The main technologicalfeatures of the RITE Bioprocess are described in the following paragraphs.
4-1. Technological attributes of the RITE Bioprocess
In the RITE Bioprocess, coryneform bacteria are engineered to have an optimum
metabolic pathway for a particular target chemical. The cells are grown on a large scale and packed
to very high densities in a reactor in order to maximize the catalyst/volume ratio at the production
stage (Fig. 4).
Sugars are subsequently added to initiate bioconversion as a substrate under oxygen
deprivation; the tight packaging effectively ceases growth of the bacteria while keeping them
metabolically active. As a result, the target chemical is produced by growth-arrested cells, with alarger share of the substrate being converted into useful products without any additional naturalrich medium or external energy. The key to achieving high efficiency and high productivity is theeffective separation of the microbial growth phase from the production phase of the target
compound. This manner of using bacterial cells as if they were simple chemical catalysts enables one
to produce large amounts of chemicals in short periods of time, and unlike conventional
bioprocesses, the productivities reached, expressed as space-time-yield (STY), are comparable tothose of chemical processes.

RITE Bioprocess
Reactor filled to highdensity with microbial
cells.

high cell density
no energy consumption for cell growthHigh productivity

Conventional Bioprocesses
Production isaccompanied by
microbial growth.
GrowthLarge reactor spaceis needed.
Production (reaction)
time depends on
microbial growth.

Fig. 4 Comparison of RITE Bioprocess with conventional bioprocess24

R I TE To da y 2013

R&D Activities Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology Group

4-2. Simultaneous utilization of C6 and C5 sugars
Lignocellulosic biomass hydrolysates constitute complex mixtures of different sugars (Fig.
5). They compose pentoses (C5 sugars such as xylose and arabinose) derived from hemicelluloses, aswell as hexoses (C6 sugars such as glucose and fructose). By comparison, starch from food grains
such as corn, wheat etc. and sugar from sugarcane contain only hexoses. Therefore, for achieving ahigh yield per substrate, it is essential for microorganisms used in biofuel processes to tosimultaneously utilize both pentoses and hexoses. Several genes involved in the catabolism of C5
sugars into have been introduced into coryneform bacteria, and the resultant recombinant bacteria
applied to the bioprocess. These modifications allow for efficient utilization of cellulosic materials,
and faster conversions with essentially no lag phase.

Food resources

Non -food resources

Corn / Sugar cane

Cellulose / Hemi-cellulose

Mixed sugars
C 6 Sugars

C 5 Sugars

C 6 Sugars

Fig. 5 Expanding usage of mixed sugars from non-food biomass

4-3. Tolerance against fermentation inhibitors
Fermentation inhibitors include phenols, furans and organic acids such as acetic acid.
These compounds are by-products formed during the pre-treatment of lignocellulosic biomass (Fig.
2). As exemplified by hydrothermal treatment, such treatments are typically very harsh but arenecessary to break the recalcitrant biomass fiber and thereby facilitate enzymatic hydrolysis. As
mentioned in chapter 2, their strong inhibition has been known for many years to be a cause ofconcern to the biofuel manufacturer and they represent one of the biggest problems associated withconventional bioprocesses. However, the RITE Bioprocess has been demonstrated to be insensitive tothese fermentation inhibitors, since their action is to inhibit cell growth, which is a separate phasefrom the production phase in the RITE Bioprocess. Furthermore, it has been extensively
demonstrated that the main metabolic pathways necessary to produce compounds of interest on the
one hand remain active under the conditions of the growth arrested RITE Bioprocess and on theother hand are virtually not affected by the presence of fermentation inhibitors in quantities thatwould hinder conventional processes.

25

R&D Activities Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology GroupR I TE To da y 2013

4-4. Future technology development
We are constantly expanding the range of product options that the RITE Bioprocess can
support. To this end, we implement global analysis tools including system biology based on
metabolome analysis, metabolic pathway design, and genome engineering based on the genome
database of coryneform bacteria. In addition to the successful production of ethanol, or L- andD-lactic acids and succinic acid, we are developing a whole range of new targets addressing large
market needs or high value added compounds comprising butanol, aromatic compounds, and aminoacids (Fig. 6).
Although the economical production of aromatic compounds has been a challenge whenusing conventional fermentation technologies, their production by industrial biotechnology is still an
important aim since these materials, once made from sustainable raw materials such as biomass, areexpected by leading Japanese companies to become building blocks for advanced products such as
electric devices, hardware, and automobiles. In addition, the RITE Bioprocess shows higher cost
performance than conventional fermentation processes such as amino acids manufactured byaerobic fermentation. Because aerobic processes require air compressors and agitation motors toventilate and mix liquids, respectively, aerobic processes involve additional equipment and expensive
operational cost. We have already begun to develop production processes for several amino acids byusing the RITE Bioprocess

Fig. 6 Production pathways of coryneform bacteria designed for acyclic chemicals and biofuels26

R I TE To da y 2013

R&D Activities Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology Group

5. RITE’s effort for industrialization
5-1. Establishment of a venture company
As described earlier, the RITE Bioprocess has unique features such as high productivity,
simultaneous utilization of mixed sugars and tolerance against fermentation inhibitors, evoking theinterest of national as well as international industry powerhouses. In response to many requests andin order to accelerate the realization the industrialization of the biorefinery, we established Green
Earth Institute Co., Ltd. in September 2011 as a world-reading venture company to provide biofuels
and green chemicals through the RITE Bioprocess. The overarching goal of establishing GEI is not
simply industrialization of the RITE Bioprocess but to contribute to the conservation of global
environment through efforts against global warming and hence the realization of sustainable
post-fossil resources societyÏhttp://www.gei.co.jp/index.htmlÐ.
5-2. Joint research for cellulosic ethanol production with NREL
NREL (U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory), founded by DOE in 1974, is the only
national laboratory solely dedicated to advancing renewable energy and energy efficiency
technologies. It has accumulated good research data regarding mixed sugar preparations fromvarious cellulosic materials and holds significant expertise in pre-treatment technologies applicableto them. As described earlier, solution of the problem of fermentation inhibitors is indispensable forcost-effective production of cellulosic ethanol. The joint research between RITE, NREL and a privatecompany established in 2011 and based on the RITE Bioprocess aims to tackle fermentation
inhibitors head on. The prospects of solving the problems at a basic research level by combining ourmutual research are apparent. In several years, our efforts with the participation of GEI, should leadto actualization of an economically efficient production process for cellulosic ethanol.
6. Ending remarks
Immediate goals for the joint research with NREL are the economically efficient
production of fuel ethanol from non-food biomass resources, and it should make impact on otherchemicals other than fuel ethanol. For example, the manufacture of as wide a range of green
chemicals as possible must be attained when a supply of low cost mixed sugars from non-foodbiomass becomes available and to be used for biorefinery. Based on the joint research with NREL,
we hope to make efforts for the realization and expansion of biorefinery industry which contributes
towards global warming prevention, environmental protection and construction of a sustainable
society (Fig. 7).
Non-food biomass

RITE Bioprocess

C6
sugarsC5
sugarsBiofuels

RITE strain

Green Chemicals
Lactate, Succinate,
Propanol, Aromatics, etc.

Amino acids(Feed use; Methionine, etc.)

Automobile materials, Packing material, Polymers Electric parts, Carbon fiber,
Various resin, Chemical building blocks, etc…

Ethanol, Butanol, etc.

Fig. 7 Early realization of biorefinery27

R&D Activities

R I TE To d a y 2013

Chemical Research Group

Challenges for Advanced Industrializing
CO2 Capture Technologies
and CO2 Emission Reduction Technologies
1. CO2 capture technologies
CO2 capture and storage (CCS) is composed of CO2 capture from fossil fuel combustion
gases and its injection into geological formations for storage or sequestration.
The current CO2 capture cost from emission sources is estimated to be about 60% of CCS
costs. Therefore reduction of CO2 capture costs is important aspect for practical application of CCS.
Chemical research group studies various CO2 capture technologies, with a special focus
on chemical absorption, membrane separation and adsorption methods, and obtained the outcomesthat lead the world. Materials development, processing and system investigation are conducted in
the group.
In the development of chemical absorbents, we developed innovative chemical
absorbents that can reduce the CO2 capture cost to half under COCS project and we have beendeveloping new chemical absorbents with the further high performance, under COURSE50 project insteel-making industry.
As the net results, in FY 2012 (final year of COURSE50 project), we achieved the CO2
capture energy consumption 2.0GJ/t-CO2 which is our target of this project, not only that, came up
the development of breakthrough absorbents which enables CO2 regeneration from absorbents at
less than 100ó compared with 120ó necessary as it is.
By developing molecular gate membrane technologies to capture CO2 selectively from
H2-containing pressurized gases such as that in the integrated coal gasification combined cycle(IGCC), we are aiming for a CO2 capture cost target of 1500 JPY/ton-CO2 (by 2015).
We discovered that new types of dendrimer /polymer hybrid membranes show excellent
separation performance for separating CO2 from H2 gas mixtures. Recently, we succeeded in
improving separation performance further by changing polymer materials from PEG to PVA etc., andworld’s largest CO2/H2 separation factor (>500) was obtained under atmospheric conditions. RITE
and three private companies have established the technology research association, developing
membrane modules and separation systems for the practical application.
We started to develop novel solid sorbents and to establish evaluation standards CO2
capture using liquid amine solvents. We are now endeavoring to find more efficiently new solid
sorbents (CO2 capture energy: 1.5 GJ/ton-CO2) which are appropriate for the project. It has been
confirmed that a new RITE-solvent based solid sorbent synthesized in our study desorbed CO2 atlower temperature compared with traditional solid amine sorbent. Evaluation for the practical use is
now under way.
As mentioned above, we are promoting innovative CO2 capture technologies, which lay
the foundations for the next generation, while developing practical technologies that are acceptable
to industries.
Moreover, we have seed technologies such as CO2 separation by zeolite membranes, H2
separation by palladium membranes, a hybrid CO2 capture system that combines membranes with achemical absorption process, baroplastics that have low temperature flow under high pressure state,etc., to be used for various purposes. Especially the membrane/absorption hybrid CO2 capture
technology has been used practically in a private company.

28

R I TE To da y 2013

R&D Activities Chemical Research Group2. Development of CO2 capture technology by chemical absorption systems
CO2 capture by chemical absorption is a prospective technology for separating CO2 from aCO2-containing gas by means of thermal dissociation of CO2 that is chemically absorbed in anamine-based solution. This is suitable for CO2 separation from the normal pressure gas generated on
an industrial scale. For the last decade, we have been developing highly efficient CO2 absorbents
that can decrease the consumption energy of CO2 separation, which is the main concern forchemical absorption systems.
We planned and led, from FY 2004 until FY 2008, a "Cost-saving CO2 Capture System"(COCS) project to capture and separate CO2 from steel-making blast furnace gas at half the previous
cost of a chemical absorption system, and achieved this goal (Fig. 1).
Chemical Absorption

Ironworks
Crude steel production
3.8 M tonne /y/blast furnace
CO 2 emission 2.6 M tonne /y/blast furnace

CO 2 2 , CO, H 2 etc.
Utilized as fuel for processing
CO 2
99

AbsorberPre-treatment

Regenerator

Reboiler

Study ofpre-treatment
New absorbent

U t i l i z a t i on of l ow
grade waste heatin ironworks

Objectives
Technology development to reduce by half of
CO 2 c a p t u r e c ost f r om b l a st f u r n a c e ga s,
and evaluation of further new technologies

CO 2 absorption system
at low cost

Fig. 1 Outline of cost saving CO2 capture system (COCS project)

In this project, we developed various types of high performance absorbents. The CO2
capture energy consumption of absorbents (named RITE solvent) developed in this project isdrastically reduced in comparison with that of MEA (monoethanolamine)-based absorbent used as abenchmark.
These outcomes were succeeded by new project, “CO2 Ultimate Reduction in
Steelmaking Process by Innovative Technology for Cool Earth 50” (COURSE50, five years from FY2008), aiming at CO2 capture in steel-making industry.
We have been developing more efficient amine-based absorbents taking advantage ofacquired R&D techniques, knowledge and the latest computational chemistry with Nippon Steel &Sumitomo Metal Corporation and The University of Tokyo, and evaluating the test results with 1t
and 30t-CO2/day scale pilot equipment (Fig.2 and 3) using BFG (blast furnace gas) under thecooperation with Nippon Steel & Sumikin Engineering Co., Ltd.
As the net results, in FY 2012 (final year of COURSE50 project), we achieved the CO2
capture energy consumption 2.0GJ/t-CO2 which is our target of this project, not only that, came up
the development of breakthrough absorbents which enables CO2 regeneration from absorbents at
less than 100ó compared with 120ó necessary as it is.
Furthermore, as the further outcomes of R&D on highly energy-efficient absorbents, wehave already developed new chemical absorbents with excellent CO2 absorption and dissociation
performances which enables CO2 regeneration under high pressure, and now we are developing CO2
absorption with the further high performance.

29

R I TE To d a y 2013

R&D Activities Chemical Research Group

Sterically Hindered Group:
R1, R2, R3, R4
Carbamate formation
CO 2 desorption
Heat of reaction

Hydroxy Group: OH
Electron acceptor (Activation of amino group)
Hydrophilicity (Solubility to water)
Formation of hydrogen bond (Volatility)

First Step
Screening of commercial amines
Formulation of amines

Second Step
Designing and synthesis of newaminesExample of amines

Amino Group: N
Electron Density (Electron donating)
Reactivity with CO 2 (Formation of carbamate or bicarbonate anion)
Proton affinity (Formation of protonated ammonium cation)
Primary, secondary or tertiary amines / Number of amino group

Fig. 2 Development of new absorbents

Absorber

Regenerator

Regenerator

Reboiler
AbsorberReboiler

Fig. 3 Snapshots of test equipment30

R I TE To d a y 2013

R&D Activities Chemical Research Group

3. CO2 and H2 separation with a polymeric membrane
Japan’s government declared a goal to reduce CO2 emissions to half of those in 2005 as
the objective “Cool Earth 50”. One promising means of reducing CO2 emission is the developmentof an integrated coal gasification combined cycle with CO2 capture & storage (IGCC-CCS) (Fig.4). In
the IGCC-CCS process, CO2 separation membranes will play an important role for reducing CO2
capture costs. Estimates indicate that the CO2 capture cost from a pressurized gas stream using amembrane might be 1500 JPY/ton-CO2 or less.
We are currently developing a CO2 molecular gate membrane, with the goal of producing
a new, high-performance separation membrane. Fig. 5 shows the basic outline of the CO2 moleculargate function. The pathway for gas molecules is occupied solely by CO2, which acts as a gate toblock the passage of other gases. Consequently, the amount of N2 or H2 permeating to the otherside of the membrane is greatly limited and high concentrations of CO2 can be obtained.

Coal

Steam

Product H 2

After WGS
H 2 , CO 2

O2
Heat Exchanger

Gasifier

CO 2

WGS reactor°

Fig. 4 Schematic of IGCC with CO2 Capture

Feed

CO 2

H 2, N 2

H O
R N C O

PressuredifferenceH O
R N C O
CO2

H
N R
HH
H
N R
HH
HCO3

R NH 2

H 2N RH O
R N C O

H
N R
HH

CO 2

Fig. 5 Conceptual diagram of the molecular gate membrane

31

R I TE To d a y 2013

R&D Activities Chemical Research GroupWe discovered that new types of dendrimer /polymer hybrid membranes show excellent
separation performance for separating CO2 from H2 gas mixtures. Recently, we succeeded in
improving separation performance further by changing polymer materials from PEG to PVA etc., andworld’s largest CO2/H2 separation factor (>500) was obtained under atmospheric conditions (Fig. 6).

600

120

500

100

300
200

Target for one stage process

100(CO2/He)[-](CO2/He)[-]40001.0E-12Target for one stage process

140

Target for two stage process
1.0E-11

1.0E-101.0E-09

1.0E-0860
40
20
0
1.0E-121.0E-07

Target for two stage process80

1.0E-11

1.0E-101.0E-09

1.0E-08

1.0E-07

QCO₂ [m3(STP)m-2s-1Pa-1]

QCO₂ [m3(STP)m-2s-1Pa-1]

Fig. 6 Separation performance of PVA-based molecular gate membranes (QCO2¬CO2 permeance, ȸ¬selectivity)

Based on these materials, modification of membrane materials, membrane thickness
control etc. are ongoing to improve CO2 separation performance further.
In the development of a commercial membrane module using the PAMAM
dendrimer/polymer hybrid material, RITE, Kuraray Co., Ltd., Nitto Denko Corporation and Nippon
Steel & Sumikin Engineering Co., Ltd. established Molecular Gate Membrane module Technology
Research Association, and membranes, membrane modules and separation systems are being
developed (Fig. 7).
In developing this CO2 molecular gate membrane, RITE conducted joint research withmany foreign partners such as the US Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology
Laboratory (NETL) in a recognized project for the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF)*,
the University of Texas at Austin and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

H2N

N
H
HN

H2N

O

O
N

N

O

O

NH2

N
H
NH

NH2

O-OHOH-PAMAM dendrimer+
PEGDMA

Materials
Membrane preparation
Structure
l n
ua io
ut at
M per
o
Co

Process adaptability
Durability
Separation mechanism+
TMPTMA

Membrane materials (acrylate/ PVA)

Development of Membranes(Kyoto Lab. & Kurashiki Lab.)

Co Mu
op tu
er al
at
io
n

Effective R&D
by mutual cooperation

Molecular Gate Membrane module Technology Research Association
Selective layer* Ministerial-level international
climate change initiative that is
focused on the development of
improved cost-effective technologies
for the separation and capture ofcarbon dioxide (CO2) for its transportand long-term safe storage.

Membrane cross-section and Proto-type module

Development of membrane modules(Ibaraki Lab.)

MutualCooperation

Membrane module
Module structure
Durability

Simulated WGS gas mixture separation test system

Development of separation system(Futtsu Lab.)

Fig. 7 Development of membrane modules in cooperation with private companies

32

R I TE To da y 2013

R&D Activities Chemical Research Group

4. Advanced stage of technology development on CO2 capture by amine-based absorbents
CCS is a highly viable technology for tackling global warming. It is strongly desirable that
this be implemented in the market as soon as possible. Recent R&D on CCS has focused onenergy-saving, low-cost CO2 capture technologies, demonstration and feasibility studies ofcommercial-scale systems, and so on. RITE began a new project funded by METI in 2010FY, in which
the research objectives were to develop novel solid sorbents and to establish evaluation standards
CO2 capture. We are now endeavoring to find more efficiently new solid sorbents (CO2 capture
energy: 1.5 GJ/ton-CO2) which are appropriate for the project (Fig. 8) .

Objective

R&D

CO2 Separation Energy:

Innovative Solid Sorbent< 1.5 GJ/t-CO2 for
Postcombustion Capture

Solid Sorbent
Amine Compounds

TargetPorous Support

Regeneration Energy
2.5 GJ/t-CO2
Vaporization Heat:
Sensible Heat:

1.5 GJ/t-CO2

PC Power Plant

Reaction Heat:

RITE Solvent

System Evaluation Tool

Solid Sorbent(Target)Capture&Compression
Separation

StorageFig. 8 Project for Development of CO2 Solid Sorbent

With respect to solid sorbents, amines can be immobilized onto a support or
encapsulated within a porous substrate (Fig. 9). Although solid sorbent techniques use amine-based
absorbents, similar to liquid amine solvent methods, it has the advantage of a lower anticipatedheat duty for regeneration. In addition, energy efficiency of a power plant with post-combustion CO2
capture can be improved at about 2% by the solid sorbent technique instead of by an advanced
liquid amine solvent technique (Fig. 10).
RITE has investigated novel solid sorbents using RITE-developed solvents throughcooperative R&D activities with NETL under the CRADA concluded in May 2012 between RITE and
NETL. NETL has started to evaluate the potential of the RITE-developed solvent for solid sorbent
fabrication. It has been confirmed that a new RITE-solvent based solid sorbent synthesized in ourstudy desorbed CO2 at lower temperature compared with traditional solid amine sorbent. Evaluation
for the practical use is now under way.
In addition, RITE has carried out process simulation study so as to more accurately
estimate energy and cost for CO2 capture from a coal-fired power plant. CO2 capture with anadvanced amine solvent was modeled with consideration of amine-CO2-H2O reaction mechanism
and the calculation result of the process simulation with that model was well accorded with theexperimental data obtained from 10t-CO2 /d pilot plant operation. Now we have extended thesimulation study based on the solvent scrubbing process to evaluation of the solid sorbent process.

33

R I TE To da y 2013

R&D Activities Chemical Research Group

Support(Porous Material)

Amine Compounds

Solvent
Water

Amino
A
mino Group

Hydroxyl G
roup
Group

Ex. MonoethanolamineEeScrubbing Solvent

Solid Sorbent

Amine Compounds

Amine Compounds

Solvent
Water

SupportPorous Material

Fig. 9 Conceptual Image of Solid Sorbent

CO2 capture by solid sorbent

Reduction of efficiency penalty

Coal

Efficiency penalty [%]12

BoilerSteam turbine

Combustion
gas

EP

FGD
CO2

Solvent

Solidsorbent

10
8
6
4

RITE
Ref.

2%

2

Solid sorbent process

1

2

3

4

CO2 capture energy [GJ/t-CO2 ]5

Fig. 10 Effect of CO2 capture by solid sorbent on a power plant

5. Challenges for CO2 emission reduction technologies
In chemical research group, we have developed various CO2 capture technologies for
CCS. In the future, we will study on technologies for reducing CO2 emission itself. For example, wewill study on process in which H2 from renewable energy sources such as natural energy, biomass
etc. is used as the energy without emission of CO2. For this purpose, we will start to develop H2
selective inorganic membranes.
In addition, we will start to study on energy-saving membrane technologies forseparation of organic solvents and hydrocarbons in place of energy-consuming distillation.

34

R&D Activities

R I TE To da y 2013

CO2 Storage Research Group

Developing CO2 Storage Technologies Aimed
at Practical Application
1. Overview
Controlling emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), a primary component of greenhousegases, is an imminent issue. Carbon capture and storage or CCS is a series of techniques that enable
separation and capture of CO2 from large-scale emission sources, such as power stations and oil
refineries, and its storage underground. CCS is considered as an important option to mitigate global
warming, as well as the other efforts to control CO2 emissions, including fuel energy efficiency,
alternative fuel, and increased use of renewable energies. In order to halve greenhouse gas
emissions by 2050, the International Energy Agency (IEA) suggested in the roadmap that 100 CCS
projects need to be deployed by 2020, 850 projects by 2030 and 3,400 projects by 2050 in theworld.
In this context, Japan launched a large-scale demonstration project in Tomakomai,
Hokkaido, aiming at establishing technologies necessary for deployment of CCS. Japan CCS
Corporation in charge of the project has already started drilling works. In the demonstration, CO2
will be captured from a large-scale emission source and more than 100 thousand tons of CO2 will
be annually injected into two geological formations (Moebetsu formation at the depth of 1,100 to
1,200 meter and Takinoue formation at the depth of 2,400 to 3,000 meters). Monitoring activities
are planned to be carried out to ensure the safety of stored CO2.
Currently, RITE undertakes research and development of geological storage of CO2,
Japan-China CCS-EOR project, partnership with international bodies and survey of global CCS
activities. By applying the outcome of our activities to the large-scale demonstration project, RITE
hopes to help facilitate implementation of CCS in Japan.
2. Research and Development of geological storage of CO2
Geological storage of CO2 includes CO2 injection into oil fields to enhance oil recovery(EOR); CO2 injection into coal seams to enhance methane recovery (ECBM); CO2 sequestration into
depleted gas fields; and CO2 storage in deep saline aquifers. In CO2 storage in deep saline aquifer,impermeable caprock formations (mudstone layer) having high sealing properties immediately
above a reservoir (sandstone layer) enable injected CO2 to be contained stably and safely for a long
period of time.

Formation
water

Storage site (onshore)

Injection
well

Separation/Capture

Sand grains

Formation
water

CO2
CO2

Storage site (offshore)

Formation
water

CO2

CO2
pipeline

CO2

Caprock(Impermeable mudstone

Ancient seawater isstored as saline
formation water in poresof a reservoir.

Injected CO2 pushes
aside the formation water.

CO2Part of the formationwater remains
in the pores hard
to flow through.

Reservoir (sandstoneFig. 1 Concept of geological storage of CO2

Fig. 2 Images of CO2 in reservoir

35

R I TE To da y 2013

R&D Activities CO2 Storage Research GroupAs shown in Fig. 3, specific technical issues RITE works on in terms of research anddevelopment of geological storage of CO2 are as follows: techniques of evaluating storage
performance (building geological models), analyzing CO2 behavior in reservoir (monitoring
techniques and numerical simulation of CO2 behavior), and analyzing CO2 migration from reservoir(numerical simulation of CO2 migration and methodology of offshore environmental impact
assessment). Furthermore, RITE is preparing a series of best practice manuals based on the outcomeof our work and what we have learned from prior projects in and outside Japan.
Reservoir evaluation

CO2 Migration analysis

CO2 behavior analysis

Fig. 3 Technical issues RITE works on in geological storage of CO2(1) Development of techniques of evaluating storage performance
Since a large volume of supercritical CO2 is injected into a reservoir in geological storage ofCO2, it requires different techniques for evaluating storage performance and monitoring from thoseused in the fields of oil and natural gas exploitation. Among them, the most important part is building
a geological formation model that will be used as the initial input (a geological model of a reservoir).
When building a geological formation model of a region where no oil or natural gas exploitation has
been made, we need to heavily depend on the past geological surveys of the ground surface orliterature research, which are limited geological information to build a model. Since CO2 injection
Predicted Porosity Distribution
might increase the pressure of a reservoir in geological storage of CO2, numericalsimulation of CO2 behavior should be based on good understanding of physicaline
Inlpropertiesof the rocks. To that end, it is very important to build a geological
Cros
700ms
sline
model that reflects the physical properties of the rocks.
From July 2003 to January 2005, RITE injected in total 10,400 tons of CO2 into a
deep saline aquifer at the depth of 1,100 meter in Nagaoka CO2 injection
1300msdemonstration test site (Iwanohara base, Nagaoka, Niigata Pref. owned by Inpex
Corporation). In order to understand post-injection CO2 behavior, various field
Horizon slice (Ic top)
measurements have been continuously conducted by using the wells at the site.
Those data and results of physical properties test of core samples are used todevelop a methodology of building a geological model that reflects complex
Line Interval: 10 m
Ngeological formations unique to Japan, such as a sand-and-mud alternate
Fig. 4 Predicted porosity distribution on the top surface of Nagaoka reservoir
formation or a sand-and-gravel formation.

36

R&D Activities CO2 Storage research group

R I TE To da y 2013

(2) Analyzing CO2 behavior within reservoir
To facilitate commercialization of geological storage of CO2, it is important to monitor
CO2 injected in a deep underground reservoir and verify that it is safely stored. Thus, RITE works on
clarifying CO2 storage mechanisms and improving numerical simulation of long-term CO2 behavior
by comprehensively analyzing various data obtained from physical loggings in Nagaoka. RITE is also
developing a permanent ocean bottom cable system(OBC) that is effective for monitoring CO2
behavior in offshore storage site.
- Analyzing CO2 behavior at Nagaoka site
To monitor CO2 behavior, RITE has continuously conducted physical loggings andcross-well seismic tomography at Nagaoka CO2 injection site. The physical loggings allow us tomeasure changes in physical properties around the observation wells and to estimate a timing of
CO2 reaching the observation well, distribution of CO2 in a depth direction, or a state of CO2(whether it remains in a supercritical state or dissolved into the formation water).
In the year 2012, RITE conducted the physical logging to examine the storage state of
CO2 during the post-injection period. Based on the results, we carried out history matching tocalibrate the numerical simulation for long-term CO2 behavior. It should be noted that among manygeological storage demonstrations in the world, Nagaoka site is the only project where CO2 behavior
is continuously monitored even after the end of CO2 injection. Therefore, its outcome has drawn
great attention worldwide.

Fig. 5 Visual images of CO2 distribution in core sample- Visualizing CO2 distribution by X-ray CT scanner
Evaluating the safety of injected CO2 in a deep
underground reservoir requires good understanding of how
complex geological structures of the reservoir affect CO2 behavior
and how a storage mechanism of CO2 works. A residual gas
trapping is a well known mechanism in the fields of oil and gas
exploitation and is essential to assess a long term stability of CO2
in the reservoir.
RITE uses an X-ray CT scanner to visualize distributionof CO2 displacing with brine water in a highly heterogeneous coresample to study the residual CO2 trapping. Our method ofvisualizing the distribution of CO2 while measuring the physicalproperties of rock, such as seismic wave or specific resistance,
successfully clarified a correlation between CO2 distribution andphysical properties of rock. RITE now studies the application of our
method to actual data obtained from physical loggings or seismic
surveys at CO2 injection site.

- Development of technology of monitoring stability of geological formation during CO2 injection
An optical fiber in the optical fiber sensing technology is capable of constantly
monitoring pressures and temperatures in a depth direction of the earth by installing it
underground. In the field of CCS, the optical fiber is further expected to measure deformation of areservoir or caprock formations caused by CO2 injection.
RITE has undertaken basic studies using rock or cement samples in the laboratory todevelop methods of evaluating stability of geological formation or methods of detecting CO2
leakage in a very early stage. They successfully resulted in establishing the basic techniques tomeasure deformation of geological formations at a measurable level and to grasp the movement of37

R&D Activities CO2 Storage Research GroupR I TE To d a y 2013

CO2 based on a change in rock deformation by using the optical fiber. Furthermore, RITE designed
specifications of an optical fiber suitable for installing in casing cement of a well and has madeprototypes. In view of the experiment results in the laboratory, we started a field test, where theoptical fiber was installed in a boring hole drilled to the sedimentary layer and monitoring work isunderway to see the deformation of geological formations during CO2 injection.
- Permanent
Perm
OBC long-term field observationInorder
to facilitate commercialization of the geological
1.2km
storage of CO2, monitoring the behavior of injected CO2 is one of
the most
mo important issues to study. A well known technique is“repeat“repea 3D seismic” which has been developed in exploiting
naturalnatura resources such as oil and natural gas. To apply the “repeat
3D seismic”
seis
in offshore geological storage of CO2, we found apermanpermanent ocean bottom cable (OBC) system is very effective. The
1200m
OBC sysystem is accurate, cost competitive and capable of collecting
all the time by installing the system on the sea bottom in thedata alFig. 6 Permanent OBC System test off the coast of Hiratsuka
area of the storage site.
conducted a seawater test of the system in the coast off Hiratsuka
This year again, RITE conduct
in Kanagawa prefecture. The seismic surveys
surv were conducted with airguns and the stability andendurance of the system were examined for long use. The challenges facing commercial use wereidentified.
50t- Impacts on geological formations during CO2 injection
Probabilities of occurrence of microseismicity induced by geological storage of CO2 havebeen at issue. According to observation in energy development sites overseas, CO2 injection would
induce microseismicity only at a very low level. However, from the viewpoint of public acceptanceand safety assessment of geological storage of CO2, monitoring microseismicity is indispensable.
Under collaboration with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Bureau of
Economic Geology, the University of Texas at Austin, RITE installed six geophones at the CO2
injection site of the United States Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership in Cranfield oil field(Mississippi, USA). Observation started in December 2011. The data has been analyzed on an eventof microseismicity and correlations between each event and CO2 injection are evaluated.
(3) Analyzing CO2 migration from reservoir
When implementing a CCS project, we need to carefully conduct various preliminary
surveys of potential storage sites before determining a reservoir that can stably contain CO2 for along term. However, public concern remains very high about CO2 leakage from the reservoir. In
order to advance public understanding of CCS and to promote wider deployment of the technology,
it is important to evaluate the impact of possible CO2 leakage on the environment and todemonstrate that CCS is a safe and stable technology. RITE carries out numerical simulation of CO2
escaping from a reservoir as part of a project of developing methodologies of safety assessment of
CCS.
When CO2 is expelled from an offshore reservoir to seabed, it is expected to migrate
through geological formations via a sediment layer to seabed. and spread into seawater. Thus
simulating CO2 leakage requires three numerical models: one for the geological formations, one forthe unconsolidated sediment layer, and one for the seawater. The model for geological formations
simulates CO2 changing a phase from supercritical, gas, liquid to dissolved state by taking possible
CO2 pathways such as a fault into account. The model for sedimentary layer simulates CO2 moving

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upwards while spreading within the layer and receiving influences of chemical reactions, biologicalactivities and others. The seawater model simulates how CO2 escaping from the seabed diffuses inseawater advection and what distribution of CO2 concentration is generated. RITE constructs a
database of the environmental impact of the changes of CO2 levels in seawater on marineorganisms.
To learn more about the impacts of CO2 leakage on the marine environment, RITE
participates in QICS (Quantifying and Monitoring Potential Ecosystem Impacts of Geological Carbon
Storage) project in the UK and joined in the field experiment where CO2 was deliberately released
from the seafloor. Time-lapse underwater cameras were installed to observe changes in behavior oflarge-size benthic marine organisms. Furthermore, various measurements were conducted to know
the impact on aerobic-ammonia-oxidation activities of benthic microorganisms.

Enhance public acceptance

Environmental impact assessment
CO2 migration and diffusion simulation

hypothetical CO2 leakage

CO2 reservoir

Fig. 7 Concept of CO2 migration and diffusion simulation

Fig. 8 CO2 diffusion simulation in seawater(showing increase in CO2 concentration after leakage)

Fig. 9 Time-lapse underwater camera

Fig. 10 Measurement of aerobic ammonia oxidation activityof benthic micro-organisms

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R&D Activities CO2 Storage Research Group(4) Preparing CCS Best Practice Manuals
It has been 16 years since the world’s first CO2 storage started at Sleipner, Norway, in
1996. Since then, the world has seen a lot of CO2 geological storage projects start. Lessons learned
were started to gather around 2008 in the form of best practice manuals (BPM), technical manuals
or guidelines for more general use. In Europe the European Commission issued CCS Directive.
It stipulates the rules of implementation of CCS to Member States and as a reference, a set of four
Guidance Documents were released to assist each country to transpose the Directive into its own
legal framework. Likewise, experience and knowledge associated with CCS demonstrations havebeen organized to prepare for a full-fledged onshore or offshore geological storage of CO2.
In Japan, the Ministry of the Environment (MoE) enacted the “Act on Prevention ofMarine Pollution and Maritime Disaster and related legislation”. The Ministry of Economy, Trade andIndustry (METI) , in view of a large-scale demonstration of CCS, released “For safe operation of a
CCS demonstration project”. This document describes a standard desired to be followed from thesafety and environmental viewpoints in implementing the large scale CCS demonstration. Regarding
the research and development of CCS, Japan has gained great knowledge through Nagaoka CO2
injection demonstration and the like.
For full-fledged deployment of CCS in future, it is important to document the expertise ofdemonstration projects in and out of Japan in an effective manner. Thus, RITE works on drafting aseries of best practice manuals of CCS as technical references for developers of CCS demonstration
projects. The best practice manuals are expected to include the outcome of research anddevelopment in Japan and actual deployment cases overseas

Table 1 Guidelines and guidance on CCS
Organization¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦Published guidelines and guidance
EPA
United States

Guidelines for CO2 storage wells (12 documents)

DOE/NETL

BPM for CO2 Storage (6 documents)

CSA

CCS international standardization

EuropeEC

Guidance for CCS directives (4 documents)

Japan

Ministry of
the Environment
METI

Guidelines for applying offshore CO2 storage

CanadaInternationalorganizations
Private organization

Document for Large-scale demonstration

CSLF

Comparison of BPM

WRIComparison of regulatory framework of EU,IEA, and EPA

IEAGHGBPM on Weyburn project

DNV

Recommendation on certifying CCS project

Table 2 Objectives and image of CCS best practice manuals¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦Contents
1. - Demonstrate technically-safe and economically-feasible implementation of CCS-Cost-effectiveness, safety, legal compliances, consensus building

Objectives- Address barriers of further deployment of CCS
2. Assist stakeholders to promote, deploy and spread Japanese technologies overseas- Entrance into overseas market and participation in joint research- International standardization and partnership with international organizations
Target users: CCS operator

Images ofbest practicemanuals

How to be used: Guidelines for deploying CCS technology
Mode: Organize technologies developed by Japan and overseas practices
Cases: Nagaoka demonstration, overseas cases, other practices in Japan40

R&D Activities CO2 Storage Research GroupR I TE To d a y 2013

OutcomeFig. 11 Scheme of drafting best practice manuals of CCS

Fig. 11 shows a development scheme to prepare RITE‘s best practice manuals of CCS. It
mainly comprises 1) collecting, organizing and analyzing information in and out of Japan; 2)organizing Nagaoka demonstration case as a domestic project; 3) preparing RITE’s best practicemanuals; and 4) preparing the best practice manuals for Japan. RITE has already collected andorganized major information on CCS in the year 2011. Thus, in the year 2012, we updated theinformation especially on CCS projects overseas, drafting the best practice manuals focusing on
Nagaoka demonstration project, and organizing information for the best practice manuals of CCS.
3. Japan-China CCS-EOR project
CCS is a technology to capture CO2 emissions from fossil fuels combustion and store it
underground. It is considered as an essential option to mitigate global warming. The concept of
CCS-EOR combining CCS with enhanced oil recovery or EOR makes profits through operation, thus its
earlier deployment is considered very likely. In the United States, CCS-EOR has been alreadycommercially implemented using natural CO2 in the order of 60 million tons of CO2 per year. CCS-EOR
is expected to further advance in foreseeable future to utilizing CO2 emissions from coal-fired power
stations which emit relatively large volume of CO2 for each basic unit of generation (1kWh).
China is the top CO2 emitter in the world and still increasing emissions every year due tothe rapid economic growth. Japan ranks the fifth CO2 emitter in the world. Thus bilateralcollaboration in the joint research on CCS-EOR has a great significance in preventing global warming.
RITE co-hosted CCS-EOR workshops (in 2009 and 2010) and Saving Energy,
Environmental Protection, GHG reduction Workshop (2011) with China National Petroleum
Corporation (CNPC). The tie has been strengthened through mutual visits to CCS/CCS-EOR related
facilities/sites in both countries. RITE and CNPC signed “the Memorandum of Understanding on
Japan-China collaboration themes” in Beijing on September 28, 2011 and selected the following
three categories as the theme of Japan-China Collaboration: (1) Research on entire CCS-EOR (CCUS)
system, (2) Research on reservoir characterization techniques, and (3) Research on microbial
restoration of methane deposits with subsurface CO2 sequestration into depleted oil fields.
In the year 2012, RITE measured petro-physical properties using elastic wave velocity and X-ray CT
images of the rock samples from China and studied the applicability of reservoir characterization
techniques developed by RITE to oil fields in China.

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Oil
CO2

CO2

CO2
CO2

Fig. 12 Concept of CCS-EOR

Fig. 13 CNPC visits to RITE (June, 2012)

4. Work with International Bodies and Survey of Global CCS Activities
RITE works closely with international bodies that make efforts to facilitate CCS
deployment and also monitors CCS activities in the world. There are a number of challenges in CCS
implementation, including economics, policies, regulations and public acceptance. It is therefore
essential to collaborate and share knowledge with overseas through these internationalorganizations.
The following are an outline and updates of the international bodies with which
hich RITE has
been working together – the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF), thee IEA Greenhouse
Gas R&D Programme (IEAGHG) and the London Convention – and recent topics in the global CCS
community.

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R&D Activities CO2 Storage Research GroupR I TE To da y 2013

- CSLF and its Recent Activities
The Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF) is an international initiative topromote research, demonstration and commercialization of CO2 capture and the geological storageand industrial utilization of the captured CO2 (CCUS) through international co-operation. Its
activities include organizing a ministerial meeting every two years. The organization was establishedin 2003. The establishment was led by the USA and the US Department of Energy takes the role ofSecretariat. CSLF is currently composed of 25 members, including developed countries such as
Japan, emerging economies, oil producers and the European Commission. Its activities are
conducted by two groups: one is the policy group that consists of policy-makers; and the other is thetechnical group that has representatives from private companies and research institutes. RITE has
been a member of the technical group since 2009.
In 2011, CSLF agreed to incorporate the utilization of captured CO2, in particular, forenhanced oil recovery (EOR) in its scope in addition to geological storage. The decision was madewith a thought that since the number of the initiation of CCS projects is much smaller than
expected, the promotion of CO2 use projects that are more commercially feasible can reduce capture
costs and will lead to future acceleration of CCS deployment consequently. EOR will be a prime
theme in the next ministerial meeting to be held in Texas in the USA in autumn 2013. As part ofpreparation for the meeting, CSLF is updating a CCS technology roadmap in a way of including
short-term challenges to be addressed.
- IEAGHG and its Recent Activities
The IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme (IEAGHG) was established in 1991 as animplement agreement under the International Energy Agency (IEA). IEAGHG is aimed at evaluating
greenhouse gas reduction technologies, promoting the deployment of these technologies,
disseminating outcomes from evaluation studies and promoting international collaboration. Amongthe low-carbon technologies, the focus has been placed on CCS. IEAGHG has a variety of members,
including 21 member countries, the European Commission and the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC) as well as 24 multinational industrial sponsors. RITE has represented
Japan in its Executive Committee since 2009 to contribute to activities planning and reviewing.
Major activities in IEAGHG include networking CCS experts and hosting workshops forthe networks as well as organizing international conferences. With a progress of actual CCS
projects, a new expert network was launched to look into environmental research in 2012. Most of
the workshops have been organized for individual networks such as modeling, monitoring and risks
for carbon storage but more efforts have come to be made on a joint meeting for multiple networks.
Such a joint meeting was held for the four storage-related networks in 2012 and two joint
workshops will be held in 2013 – one is for modeling and risk management; and the other is formonitoring and environment research. As an IEAGHG-hosted international conference, RITE
co-hosted the 11th International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies (GHGT-11) in
November 2012 and made a success of the event. In 2013, IEAGHG plans two international
conferences on capture technologies.
- London Convention and its Recent Activities
The London Convention supports CO2 storage under the seabed. The international treaty
is aimed at preventing marine pollution by dumping of wastes and other matters mainly from ships
and was amended to allow offshore storage in 2007. CCS related topics such as transboundary CCS
activities have still been under discussion. RITE is a member of the Japanese delegation incontracting parties meetings and also scientific meetings that are to share information underpinnedby science.

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R&D Activities CO2 Storage Research GroupR I TE To da y 2013

Transboundary activities consist of two issues: CO2 export for injection and migration of
injected CO2. The London Convention was amended to incorporate these activities in 2009 but theamendment hasn’t come into force yet due to shortage of the number of parties who has ratified.
Since then, efforts to set up two guidelines – one for export and the other for migration – and thelater one was completed and approved in 2012.
- CCS Activities Update
The CCS roadmap released by IEA in 2009 points out that it is required to deploy 100
large-scale CCS projects by 2020 to achieve a scenario to halve CO2 emissions from a current levelby 2050. According to the Global CCS Institute (GCCSI), there are, however, only eight projects ofthis kind under operation currently and taking account of those which will come into operation
within a few years, the number is still 16. Among those, 12 projects are operated or planned in
North America so that we can say the region takes the lead in large-scale projects. 14 use industrial
plants which require lower additional costs for CO2 capture as CO2 emission sources and 10 employ
a business model to sell captured CO2 for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) operation. These imply that a
key issue in successful project implementation is to secure project economics. CCS projects forcoal-fired power plants are limited to two, namely, Boundary Dam and Kemper, again, in North
America. The both projects are making good progress toward commissioning in 2014 and theircompletion will draw great attention from the viewpoint of demonstration of capture technology
forCO2 from commercial-scale power plants.
Europe has been enthusiastic in tackling global warming and has placed the focus on the
promotion of large-scale CCS projects for coal-fired power stations, which has the high potential tocontribute to intensive reduction in CO2 emissions when equipped with CCS. However, theirprogrammes have not shown good progress. The European Commission initiated two schemes forfinancial support to capital investment in 2008 and 2009. However, due to the recent economic
turmoil and much lower prices of carbon credits, which were expected to be incentives for CCS,
there have been neither deployed projects and nor final investment-decided projects since two
Norwegian projects, Sleipner and Snøhvit, were initiated in 1996 and 2008. Under thecircumstance, Norway established a test centre where capture technologies can be verified at a
relatively large scale in 2012. The facility has raised expectation for its prospective contribution to
reduction in capture costs. A new scheme that the UK Government has decided to introduce has
also drawn strong attention as an economic incentive alternative to carbon prices. The policy is afeed-in-tariff system for electricity generated by low-carbon technologies, including not only
renewable and nuclear but also CCS.
In Australia, a private consortium is developing an offshore gas field as a CCS project.
The Gorgon Project is to capture and store over three million tonnes of CO2 generated in processingof natural gas produced there. Its construction has kept on its schedule toward commissioning in
2015. Australia has a setting suitable for CCS promotion: a carbon tax scheme was implemented inJuly 2012 and the Federal and State Governments are positive to investment in CCS projects. It is,however, likely to take many years to see a next project after Gorgon. There are two large-scale
projects, South West Hub and Carbon Net, in which multiple emitters will participate. Both projects
are in a phase of feasibility study and the commitment of the Governments on funding is limited tothe studies.
Projects in Asia have recently drawn more attention. The Japanese Government ispreparing for a full-chain CCS demonstration in Tomakomai, Hokkaido. In China, two CCS projects
with a capture rate of 100,000-tonne level are under operation and another two with 100,000 to
300,000-tonne level are under construction.

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2013 Vol.08¦

RITE Today
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11th International Conferenceon Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies(GHGT-11)
held in November 2012

GHGT-11 was held from 18th to 22nd November 2012at the Kyoto International Conference Center and hotels in Kyoto
city. The GHGT conference series has established itself as theprincipal international conference on greenhouse gas mitigation
technologies especially on CCS, and are held every two years
rotating between North America, Europe and Asia. GHGT-11 was its
first visit to Japan in the past ten years, again organized by RITE andIEAGHG.
The previous event GHGT-10, which was held in
Netherlands, drew more than 80% of its attendance from Europe
and North America. GHGT-11 attracted 1293 participants from 48
countries, featured as many as 526 participants from Asia, including
346 from Japan, 61 from China, and 60 from Korea. GHGT-11 was
funded by 19 donators and sponsors, exhibition booths arranged by
25 entities, as well as supported by METI, Kyoto prefecture, Kyoto
city, Kyoto Convention Bureau, and Kyoto Chamber of Commerceand Industry, for all of which we thank you very much.
The conference was composed of the three sections, that
is, Plenary sessions (keynote talks and the final panel discussionetc.), Technical sessions (oral and poster presentation)” and Social
Programmes.
The official GHGT-11 Conference Summary in English
language, which includes key messages from both the plenary andtechnical sessions, has been made available at www.ghgt.info.
Papers presented at the technical sessions are to be included in theconference online proceedings and published by Elsevier around
March 2013, for which the link will be distributed to all theparticipants by e-mails.
During the breaks between sessions, many enjoyedwalking in the garden, viewing reddening autumn leaves, andlearning how to create Japanese origami figures.
Social Programme was mainly composed of two events,
the first one being the Welcome reception held on Sunday 18th
November at Hotel Granvia Kyoto, where a traditional Japanese
ceremony called “Kagami-biraki (sake barrel opening ceremony) “
was performed to celebrate the success of the conference. The
second and the concluding one was the Conference Dinnerorganized on Wednesday 21th November held at the Westin Miyako
Kyoto, where Kyo-mai (elegant dancing by Maiko and Geiko)entertained the delegates much. At the same occasion theGreenman award was given to Dr. Sally Benson, professor at
Stanford University and GHGT-11 Technical Programme Committee
member by Dr. Kelly Thambimuthu, the chair of the Executing
Committee of the IEAGHG (at right of the same photo) to reward
her long-term great contribution to CCS R&D activities and also to
the GHGT conference series.

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Plenary and Technical Sessions in GHGT-11
GHGT-11 had plenary sessions consisting of opening, three keynote, six presentations, final panel discussions and closing
and technical sessions where around 300 oral and 600 poster presentations were made.
In this conference we had vigorous discussions on mainly Carbon dioxide Capture and Storage (CCS) under a key theme,“CCS: Ready to forward” during 5 days. In this article, outlines of these plenary and technical sessions are introduced.

1. Attending countries
Attendees were 1,293 from 48 countries. The number is; Japan346, the United States 172, Norway 118, the United Kingdom 97,
Australia 72, China 61, South Korea 60, and Canada 57. Largest
party was the host country, Japan, and was followed by the UnitedStates, Norway, and the United Kingdom. Many participants joinedfrom Asian countries like China and South Korea because thisconference was held in Asia.

Dr. Jay Braitiszh, Senior Advisor, Office of Fossil Energy USDOE:“CCS Projects are Becoming Reality–the USDOE Demonstration Program”
President Nishida introduced green activities of Toshibagroup in process, product technology and market fields. The next
presenter, Mr. Brad Page introduced Global CCS Institute’s recent
report, “Global Status of CCS, 2012” and talked on current statusof CCS and recommendations for the future. Finally, Dr. Jay
Braitiszh of MIT introduced CCS demonstration projects supported
by USDOE.
From the second day two plenary presentations were
given in every morning. Presenters and titles are as follows:

2. Plenary sessions
The key theme of the conference was ”CCS¬Ready toMove Forward”, which was followed with the theme, “Fromresearch to reality” in GHGT-10 two years ago. This theme impliedthat “CCS is already ready to realize. Why don’t we move
forward! ” However, many challenging issues including today’s
slumping economy are standing before us. The conference
repeatedly strengthened that leaderships of government in eachcountry were necessary to get over these walls.
The following three keynote speech was given on the first day:
Mr. Atsuoka Nishida, Chairman of the Board, Toshiba: “Aiming
for True Harmony between Energy and Environment”
Mr. Brad page, CEO, Global CCS Institute:“International Progress on CCS: Current Status
and Recommendations for the Future”

Mr. Juho Lipponen, Head of CCS Unit, IEA:“A Global Vision for CCS –Revising the IEA CCS Roadmap”
Dr. Frank O’Sullivan, Executive Director, Energy and Sustainable
Challenge Programme, MIT: “The Global Gas Supply–Scale, Cost and implications for CCS”
Dr. Kozo Sato, Director, Frontier Research Center for Energy
and Resources, The University of Tokyo:“GHGT101: Carbon Storage in Japan”
Mr. Henk Reimink, Executive Director, Energy Sustainability
Challenge Programme, Word Steel Association: “Deployment
of CO2 Capture Technology in Energy Intensive Industry–Challenges Ahead: A Case Study for the Steel Industry”
Mr. Chris Hendriks, Managing Consultant, Ecofys: “Overview
and Recent Developments on CO2 Transport Infrastructure”
Dr. Kieigo Akimoto, Chief Researcher and Group Leader of the
System Analysis Group, RITE: “Beyond Kyoto–More effective Framework for Climate Change”
In Final Panel Discussion, Dr. Kenji Yamaji chaired andfour panelists, Juho LipponenÏIEAÐ, James A. EdmondsÏPNNLÐ,Takeo Kikkawa (Hitotsubashi University), and Yoshiharu Tachibana(CRIEPI) joined to discuss under the theme, “As a Countermeasure
to Global Warming –Best Mix on Energy Portfolio and Enhancing
International Cooperation”. The discussion was concluded by thefollowing messages: CCS is necessary to mitigate Global Warming.
It is important that we are staking experiences throughimplementing many demonstration projects and sharing
knowledge together. It is also necessary to well communicate withstakeholders and appeal strongly that CCS is a very attractive
mitigation technology.

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Topics

3. Technical sessions
Technical sessions have 77 oral sessions. Among them,capture sessions were 21 and storage sessions including otherstorage options were 23, both of these two constituting more thanhalf of all. The number of policy sessions (policy, legal issues, andpublic perception) was only five, giving an impression that it was alittle small.
In five system integration sessions, technicalassessment on cost and risk, operational flexibility, system
integration (power system, infrastructures, and others) were
presented. For demonstration, five sessions were allocated:storage, USRCSP, policy related issues, capture and transport, andpost combustion. In this storage session, a large scaledemonstration at Tomakomai, Hokkaido was introduced.

Technical sessions
CaptureStorage (inc. other options)
Transport
Integrated Systems
Demonstration
Industrial Sources
Policy (policy, legal issues, public perception)
Commercial issues
Education
Utilization of CO2
Negative CO2 Emissions
Panel Discussion
Total

Number

21
23
3
5
5
2
5
1
1
4
1
6
77

Capture sessions
Capture technologies are mainly classified into three
categories: Post-, Pre-, and Oxyfuel-Combusition. In thisconference presentations on Post-Combustion were given in 12
sessions, which were more than half of all capture sessions. As
Pre-Combustion had two and Oxyfuel had three sessions, thenumber of sessions on Post-Combustion was remarkably large andthis gave us information that Post-Combustion was widely
examined for an earliest available technology. Presentations on
Post-Combustion were covered in wider fields including basic
study like new innovative solvents development, engineering
topics like selection of packing materials for absorber or corrosive
issues, process simulations, and demonstration projects. Especiallyremarkable topics were that three sessions were allocated forenvironmental impacts of Post-Combustion process. Degradationsof amines which are main components of absorbing solvents, its

behaviors in environments, and impacts to environment were
presented by Norway and Australia. Besides, Norway also showedemission standard of amines in demonstration plants.
Recent Progresses in the following demonstration
projects were introduced: Technology Center Mongstad (Norway),
Munmorah Coal Power (Australia), Wilhelmshaven Power(Germany), Ferrybridge (UK) for Post-Combustion, Puertollano
IGCC (Spain) for Pre-Combustion, and Callide Oxyfuel Project(Australia, Japan), Vattenfall Oxyfuel (Germany), Compostilla
Power (Spain), Eni’s FCC Oxyfuel (Italy) for Oxyfuel-Combustion.
Advanced technologies including membranes, sorbent
system, and chemical looping were presented. Industrial sectors(Iron & Steel, cement, etc.) are also important area for CO2
capture. Two sessions named “Industrial Sources” were assigned,
giving information on progresses in these industrial fields.
COURSE50 project was also introduced from Japan in thesesessions.
Storage sessions
Storage sessions covered a wide variety of themes.
There were presentations on storage capacity estimation in theworld and specific areas (offshore the Netherlands and south
Queensland, Australia), and site characterization and selection
procedures in offshore sites such as Norway, Denmark, andTomakomai, Japan. In modeling and numeric simulations,
uncertainties in reservoir model were discussed. For CO2 infectivity,
Snøhvit case was introduced and pressure control procedures withadditional water production wells were discussed. In monitoring
sessions, geochemical monitoring for CO2 leakage, detailed resultsin monitoring pilot projects, In Salah (micro seismic), Otway,
Nagaoka, and Weyburn (CO2 leakage) were presented. Regarding
safety issues, QUICS project which investigated impacts ofreleased CO2 to the marine environment was introduced. Besides,
there were other three sessions on “Risk Assessment andManagement” and “Contingency planning & remediation”.
In the field of CO2 use (CCUS), there also presented
enhanced hydrocarbon recovery (EOR§EGR§ECBM) andcombination of CCS with geothermal.

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Policy Sessions
Policy sessions were two in which the following topics
were discussed: CDM of CCS (formal acceptance in UNFCCC,
modalities and procedures), carbon market and CCS, effectivenessof EUETS, and how to go CCS forward under today’s slumping
economy. In a legal issues session, current situations intransposition of CCS Directive into national laws in Europe wereintroduced. Investigations on public perception in the Netherlands,
Spain, Poland, Scotland, China, and the US RCSP were also
reported.

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TopicsMolecular Microbiology and Biotechnology Group

Joint research with NREL towards
cellulosic ethanol production
NREL (U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory)
founded by DOE is the only national laboratory solely dedicated toadvancing renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. In
the U.S., the industrial production of biofuels from non-foodcellulosic biomass resources is slowing down due to technologicalproblems caused by “fermentation inhibitors” (see text). In thisjoint research by RITE, NREL and a private company, we aim
overcome these technological problems by sharing our respective
research results and findings, namely pre-treatment andsaccharification technologies developed by NREL and the hightolerance for the fermentation inhibitors inherent in the RITE
Bioprocess. Green Earth Institute Co., Ltd., a venture company
established by RITE, will join in the second part of this year tospearhead demonstration experiments for cellulosic ethanol
production.

Many visitors attended our seminarand exhibition booth at BioJapan2012(World Business Forum)
BioJapan 2012 (World Business Forum) organized by
the BioJapan Organizing Committee and ICS Convention Design,
Inc. was held at Pacifico Yokohama from 10th to 12th October
2012. RITE hosted the forum as a sponsor organization since2011. RITE Director, Dr. Hideaki Yukawa moderated the seminar on“Green Innovation Summit”, this time in its fourth year, which
many participants attended. RITE and GEI, jointly exhibited the“RITE-Bioprocess” and its strategy for industrialization along withposters and video presentations. Our corporate strategic alliancepartners also joined the exhibition, with their panels displaying
products which were produced using the RITE-Bioprocess. We
thank all those who visited of our booth very much.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)

Mr. Ikuro Sugawara, center, Director-General,
Manufacturing Industries Bureau of Minister of
Economy, Trade and Industry, stopped by our booth.

Dr. Yukawa presenting the joint research results
at the SIMB (Society for Industrial Microbiology
and Biotechnology) Annual Meeting (Aug. 2012)

A rendering of Kazusa biorefinery facility which begins
demonstration experiment for cellulosic ethanol production(Chiba prefecture)

RITE/GEI joint exhibition booth50

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TopicsChemical Research Group

Symposium for Innovative CO2 Membrane Separation Technology- Recent Trend of Membrane Separation Technology Contributing to
the Prevention of Global Warming -On September 28th 2012, Symposium for
Innovative CO 2 Membrane Separation Technology “Recent
trend of membrane separation technology contributing to
the prevention of global warming” was held at Dai-ichi
Hotel Tokyo, sponsored by Molecular Gate Membrane
Module Technology Research Association, co-sponsored by
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) (supported
by Japan CCS Co., Ltd.(JCCS), Global CCS Institute(GCCSI),
Japan Association for Chemical Innovation (JACI), The
Membrane Society of Japan, and The Society of Chemical
Engineers, Japan(SCEJ)). 147 related persons attended
from companies, universities, research institutes andgovernment agencies.
Molecular Gate Membrane Module Technology
Research Association was established by Kuraray Co., Ltd.,
Nitto Denko Corporation, Nippon Steel & Sumikin
Engineering Co., Ltd., and RITE in order to commercialize amolecular gate membrane module, which was pioneered bychemical research group of the RITE.
The purpose of this symposium was to report the
recent research trend of CO 2 separation membrane
technologies, which the Association have been developing,
and the overview of its research and development inoverseas, and then widely provide people interested in CO 2
separation with the latest information to help themunderstand R&D activities for CO 2 reduction required forboth public and private sectors. The first symposium washeld last year, and this time was the second symposium.
The speakers were Kenji Yamaji, Director-Generalof RITE, “Energy/Environmental Problems and CCS”;
Toshinori Tsuru, Professor of Hiroshima University,“Current status and future perspective of membrane
separation technology”; Tim Merkel, Director of Researchand Development Group, Membrane Technology&
Research, Inc. (MTR) U.S.A., “Development of Membrane
Technology for CO 2 Capture from Power Systems at MTR”;
Jaap Vente, Group Leader and Technology Transfer
Manager, Energy research centre of the Netherlands (ECN),“Technological possibilities for the separation of hydrogenfrom carbon dioxide”; Shin-ichi Nakao, Professor of
Kogakuin University, Group Leader of Chemical ResearchGroup of RITE, “Next-Generation Membrane Module”.
Membrane modules and posters, etc. weredisplayed by the Association.
A survey of visitors was conducted. As a result, agood response was received from 80% of respondents.

51

R I TE To d a y 2013

TopicsCO2 Storage Research Group

Systems Analysis GroupCCS Technical Workshop- Approaches to Address Concerns
over CO2 Seepage from Reservoirs -ALPS International Symposium 2012

RITE, in association with the Ministry of Economy, Trade andIndustry (METI), hosted a CCS Technical Workshop with a theme of“Approaches to Address Concerns over CO2 Seepage from Reservoirs” in
Belle Salle Yaesu in Tokyo on 24 January 2013. The efforts to secure safetyof CCS projects have been increasingly recognized important as Japanlaunched a full-chain CCS demonstration in 2012 and more and more
CCS projects are going to commence across the world. In the workshop,
approximately 140 participants from governments, businesses,
universities and research institutes discussed efforts of this kind and waysof securing safety of CCS through presentations from four overseas andJapanese experts, facilitated by Professor Toru Sato, the University ofTokyo.
The event was kicked off by Dr Jun Kita, RITE, who introducedcase studies of regulations for safety and environment impacts
assessment. Then, Professor Robert J. Finley from the Illinois State
Geological Survey talked about approach to prevent CO2 leakage,
introducing site characterization and monitoring plan and results in the
Decatur Project in USA. The third speaker, Dr Keisuke Uchimoto, RITE,
presented a methodology to assess impacts if CO2 leaks from a reservoir
under the seabed. Finally, Dr Katherine Romanak from the University ofTexas at Austin explained a field survey for an alleged seepage in the
Weyburn Project in Canada. Key findings through discussions include anenvironmental impacts process contributes greatly to improvement inpublic acceptance; a monitoring program enables not only researchers
but also regulators and the general public to confirm that there is noleakage and the site is safe; and setting up an incident response protocol
prior to a CCS project is essential. Finally, Professor Sato concluded theworkshop by emphasizing that not only in CCS but also in other large
developments it was important to take both the viewpoint of economic
development and that of environmental impacts and thatcountermeasures against environmental impacts should be recognized as
an added value.

The ALPS International Symposium 2012 was held at
Nadao Hall in Tokyo on February 7th, 2012. This symposium washosted by the Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the
Earth (RITE) with support from the Ministry of Economy, Trade andIndustry, Japan (METI). The symposium was titled “the Addressing
Climate Change Harmonized with Sustainable Development.”
We are honored to have a variety of leading experts
including Prof. Nabojsa Nakicenovic and Prof. Arnulf Grübler fromthe International Institute Applied Systems Analysis, Prof. John P.
Weyant from the Stanford University, Dr. Rob Dellink from theOrganisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Taikan
Oki from the University of Tokyo, Taishi Sugiyama from the Central
Research Institute of the Electric Power Industry, Shuzo Murakami
from the Building Research Institute, Yoichi Kaya from the
President of RITE, and Keigo Akimoto from RITE. We discussedsustainable development and climate change response measures,and their scenario analyses from long-term and multiple
perspectives.
We had an attendance of 200 people from industries,
ministries and universities. Their active discussion motivated us to
dedicate further efforts to our research and development.

The ALPS International Symposium 2013 will bescheduled to take place in February 27th, 2013 in Tokyo (Hosted
by RITE and co-hosted by METI). Distinguished experts from Japanand abroad will be invited as guest speakers to talk about thetrend and outlook on sustainable climate change actions and theframeworks for them.

52

R I TE To d a y 2013

TopicsPlanning, Survey, and Public Relations Group

Innovative Environmental
Environmental education
Technology Symposium 2012
for children in Keihanna- Toward the realization of green growth RITE is contributing to the awareness about global
warming of the children who study in the Keihanna area. We
welcomed junior high school students in Seika town and delivered
a lecture on the topic of global warming and our research anddevelopment. Furthermore, we cooperated the “Science-Rally for
Kids in the Yamashiro Area”, an event organized by the Yamashiro
regional education office.
Through such seminars, students of all ages learned
about the causes of global warming and its effects on theenvironment, and on the other hand how the R&D conducted at
RITE can be implemented to reduce the CO2 concentration in ouratmosphere. Notably, numerous students expressed their interest
and amazement for newly discovered technologies such as CCS. It
is our hope that by giving children a chance to learn about global
warming, about our research, and about our innovations would
help them increase their interest in science and in the global
problems of our time.

The symposium entitled “Innovative Environmental
Technology Symposium 2012 - Toward the realization of green
growth -” was held on December 5, 2012 at Ito Hall (The
University of Tokyo).
This symposium was organized by RITE, and supportedby the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI)«The
Chemical Society of Japan«The Society of Chemical Engineers,
Japan«Japan Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology, andAgrochemistry«Japan Society of Energy and Resources«The Japan
Institute of Energy.
The symposium started with RITE’s Director-General, Dr.
Yamaji’s lecture entitled “Expectations and challenges for green
growth” which focused on measures to realize green growth that
contributes to industrial and economic development. Then, Mr.
Tsuzuku, Director, Research Planning Group, reviewed the global
trend and international standardization for CCS and futurechallenges for RITE.
The experts from each research group reported theoutcome and outlook of their researches such as biorefinery
technology, scenarios for mitigation global warming and CCS
technology, within the context of current global trends and thespecific situation in Japan.
With a total of 287 attendees from a variety of
institutions and governmental agencies including participants fromMETI and various fields of industry and academia, this symposium
illustrated the impact that the work performed at RITE can have inthe marketplace and for the general public.

53

2012 Paper, Presentation and Publication

R I TE To da y 2013

Systems Analysis Group◆2012 Original Paper◆2012 Oral Presentation (Domestic Conference)

1. J. Oda, K. Akimoto, T. Tomoda, M. Nagashima, K. Wada, F. Sano. International

1. Keigo Akimoto. Global warming and energy outlook : Greenhouse gas

comparison of energy efficiency in power, steel and cement industries, Energy

emissions and global warming impacts, Group seminar on "Energy Studies", thePolicy Vol.44 pp.118-129, May 2012

Japan Institute of Energy, Jan. 23, 2012

2. K. Akimoto, F. Sano, T. Homma, K. Wada, M. Nagashima, J. Oda. Comparison

2. K. Akimoto, A. Hayashi, F. Sano, T. Homma, J. Oda, K. Wada, M. Nagashima, K.

of marginal abatement cost curves for 2020 and 2030: longer perspectives for

Tokushige, T. Tomoda. Analyses on scenarios for global response measure andeffective global GHG emission reductions, Sustainability Science Vol.7 No. 2

sustainable development, 28th Conference on Energy, Economy andpp.157-168, July 2012

Environment, Jan. 31, 2012

3. K. Akimoto, F. Sano, A. Hayashi, T. Homma, J. Oda, K. Wada, M. Nagashima, K.

3. K. Tokushige, K. Akimoto, J. Oda, T. Homma. Outlook of possibility for meeting

Tokushige, T. Tomoda. Consistent assessments of pathways toward sustainable

the Kyoto Target of Japan, 28th Conference on Energy, Economy anddevelopment and climate stabilization, Natural Resources Forum Vol.36 No.4

Environment, Jan. 31, 2012

pp.231-244, November 2012

4. M. Nagashima, K. Akimoto, K. Wada, J. Oda, F. Sano. A study on implicit cost

4. T. Homma, K. Akimoto, T. Tomoda. Quantitative evaluation of time-series GHG

for investment in environmentally-friendly and energy-saving equipments, 28themissions by sector and region using consumption-based accounting, Energy

Conference on Energy, Economy and Environment, Jan. 31, 2012

Policy Vol.51 pp.816-827, December 2012

5. A. Hayashi, T. Homma, K. Akimoto, F. Sano. Analyses of land use agriculture

5. K. Wada, K. Akimoto, F. Sano, J. Oda, T. Homma. Energy-efficiency

under climate change, 28th Conference on Energy, Economy and Environment,

opportunities in the residential sector and their feasibility, Energy Vol.48 Issue 1,

Jan. 31, 2012

pp.5-8, December 2012

6. F. Sano, K. Akimoto, A. Hayashi, T. Homma. An evaluation of biomass energy

6. K. Wada, F. Sano, K. Akimoto, T. Homma, K. Tokushige, M. Nagashima, T.

and forestation in climate change mitigation with land-use constraints, 28th

Tomoda. Assessment of Copenhagen pledges with long-term implications,

Conference on Energy, Economy and Environment, Jan. 31, 2012

Energy Economics Vol.34 Supplement 3, S481-S486, December 2012

7. K. Wada, K. Akimoto, F. Sano, M. Nagashima, J. Oda, K. Tokushige. Bounded

7. A. Hayashi, K. Akimoto, T. Tomoda, M. Kii. Global evaluation of the effects ofrationality and risk perception in human behavior, 28th Conference on Energy,

agriculture and water management adaptation on the water-stresses

Economy and Environment, Jan. 31, 2012

population, Mitigation and Adaptation of Strategies for Global Change, in press

8. T. Homma, A. Hayashi, F. Sano, K. Akimoto. Regional food security under CO2

8. M. Kii, K. Akimoto, A. Hayashi. Risk and hunger under climate change, social

emission reduction policies, 28th Conference on Energy, Economy anddisparity, and agroproductivity scenarios, Environmental Modeling andEnvironment, Jan. 31, 2012

Assessment, in press

9. J. Oda, K. Akimoto, F. Sano, K. Wada. Energy security index by country under

9. K. Akimoto, F. Sano, A. Hayashi, T. Homma, J. Oda, M. Nagashima, K.

CO2 emission constraints, 28th Conference on Energy, Economy andTokushige, T. Tomoda. Trade-offs and synergies of sustainable development andEnvironment, Jan. 31, 2012

climate stabilization in Asian regions, Edited Volume of Environment Policy in

10. Keigo Akimoto. The future perspective of Japan's energy system considering

Asia (National University of Singapore (NUS)), in press

global warming response measures, The 77th Annual Meeting, the Society ofChemical Engineers, Japan, Mar. 16, 2012◆2012 Other Paper

11. K. Akimoto, F. Sano, T. Homma, J. Oda. Analyses on Japanese mid- and1. Keigo Akimoto. Chapter 3: Mitigation target, Chapter 5, Cost of mitigation,

long-term power supplies and global warming mitigation measures, 31st Annual

Chapter 8: Potential for energy efficiency improvement and barriers. Climate

Meeting, Japan Society of Energy and Resources, Jun. 5, 2012

Change Mitigation -A Balanced Approach to Climate Change- (Springer),

12. F. Sano, K. Akimoto, K. Wada. Impacts of model representation of climate

January 2012change mitigation technology options on the evaluation of CO2 emission

2. Keigo Akimoto. Primary consequences of nuclear power phase-out andreduction, 31st Annual Meeting, Japan Society of Energy and Resources, Jun. 5,

condensation -the impacts on economy, household budgets and CO2

2012

emissions-. Energy Forum Vol.58 No.686, February 2012

13. J. Oda, K. Akimoto, K. Wada, M. Nagashima, F. Sano. Study of the

3. Kenichi Wada. Implication of climate change policies from emissions trading,competitiveness of small-and-medium-sized steel plants in China, 31st Annual

renewable energy and energy conservation policies in EU, Electrical Review,

Meeting, Japan Society of Energy and Resources, Jun. 6, 2012

August 2012

14. K. Akimoto, F. Sano, A. Hayashi, T. Homma, J. Oda, K. Wada, M. Nagashima,

4. Keigo Akimoto. Global warming and energy outlook : Greenhouse gas

K. Tokushige, T. Tomoda. Analyses on scenarios for global response measuresemissions and global warming impacts, Journal of the Japan Institute of Energy,

harmonizing sustainable development, 17th Annual Meeting, Society for

pp.605-607, July 2012

Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Sep. 16, 2012

5. Keigo Akimoto. Trying to understand 'Options for Energy and the

15. A. Hayashi, K. Akimoto, F. Sano. A scenario analysis for potential of global

Environment' correctly and deeply, Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry

energy-crop production, 2012 Annual Meeting, Society of Environmental

News, September 2012

Science, Japan, Sep. 14, 2012

6. J. Oda, K. Akimoto. The iron and steel industry of Japan, maintaining superior

16. Keigo Akimoto. Policy analysis and evaluation of CO2 reduction and energy

energy efficiency in the world, International Environment and Economy Institute,

strategy in Japan, P&D Seminar, The Society of Chemical Engineers, Dec. 14,

http://ieei.or.jp/2012/10/expl121025/, October 20122012

7. Keigo Akimoto. Power supply and policy challenges in the future from theperspective of global warming, Electrical Review, December 2012◆2012 Oral Presentation (International Conference)
1. Kenichi Wada. Co-benefits of energy efficiency in the context of climatechange mitigation, IGES International Workshop on a Co-Benefits Approach,Feb. 13, 2012

54

R I TE To da y 20132012 Paper, Presentation and Publication

2. F. Sano, K. Akimoto, T. Homma, J. Oda, K. Wada. Analysis of Asian long-term

Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, METI, May 21, 2012

climate change mitigation in power generation sector, 3rd IAEE Asian

6. K. Akimoto, T. Homma, F. Sano. Economic and CO2 impact analysis in 2030

Conference, Kyoto, Japan, Feb. 20, 2012using RITE energy and economic models, Joint Meeting of Subcommittee on the

3. J. Oda, K. Akimoto, F. Sano, M. Nagashima, K. Wada, T. Tomoda. Assessment

Post-2013 Countermeasures and Global Environment Committee, Centralof Asian energy security index in the context of global CO2 mitigation, 3rd IAEE

Environment Council, May 28, 2012

Asian Conference, Kyoto, Japan, Feb. 20, 2012

7. Keigo Akimoto. Toward the establishment of a new climate change

4. K. Wada, F. Sano. Solar and wind representation in DNE21+ model for EMF27

framework, Exploratory Committee on a New Climate change Framework, IGES,

study, EMF 27, Stanford University, US, May 1, 2012

Jul. 2, 2012

5. Keigo Akimoto. Trade-offs and synergies of sustainable development and8. Keigo Akimoto. Energy and environmental strategy impact on economy andclimate stabilization in Asian regions, Policies for Environmentally Sustainableindustry, Academic Forum sponsored by Science Council of Japan, “Now, aDevelopment: Asia's Perspective an International Workshop, Singapore, May 24,

strong step to reconstruction -considering the post-quake energy and industrial

2012

reconstruction-“, Jul. 3, 2012

6. K. Wada, F. Sano. DNE21+'s study results and energy policy debate in Japan,

9. Keigo Akimoto. New strategy for energy and CO2 emission reduction, “Energy

AMPERE Project Meeting in Venice, Italy, May 23, 2012

& Environment” Technical Committee, Japan Techno-Economics Society, Jul. 11,

7. T. Homma. Analysis of economic impacts including poverty under global CO2

2012

emissionreduction targets, GTAP Conference 2012, Centre International de

10. Keigo Akimoto. Energy and environment strategy in the future, RITE

Conférences Genèva, Switzerland, June 29, 2012

Companionship Board, Jul. 13, 2012

8. J. Oda, K. Akimoto, F. Sano, T. Homma, A. Hayashi, M. Nagashima, K. Wada, T.

11. Keigo Akimoto. Analysis of the energy and environment council options &Tomoda. Comprehensive evaluation of sustainable development and climate

potential alternative strategy, Symposium on Japan's Energy Policy, Toward astabilization: ALPS Project, IIASA 40th Anniversary Conference, Austria, October

National Debate on Options -the Nature of Energy and Environment Policy-, Jul.

24, 2012

23, 2012

9. A. Hayashi, K. Akimoto, F. Sano, T. Homma, J. Oda, K. Wada, M. Nagashima, T.

12. Keigo Akimoto. Trends of developing IPCC integrated scenarios andTomoda, K. Tokushige. Global evaluation of land area required for foodoverview, IPCC WG3, National Executive Committee, METI, Aug. 3, 2012production and water stress, IIASA 40th Anniversary Conference, Austria,

13. Keigo Akimoto. RITE analysis of energy and environmental strategy options

October 24, 2012and points of concern, Economic Model Debate on Energy and Environmental

10. K. Akimoto, K. Wada, F. Sano, A. Hayashi, T. Homma, J. Oda, M. Nagashima,

Strategy Options, Kankeiren, Aug. 10, 2012

K. Tokushige, T. Tomoda. Consistent analysis of different scenarios of climate

14. Keigo Akimoto. FOD status: IPCC WG3 Chapter 6 Assessing Transformation

stabilization and sustainable development, IAMC (Integrated Assessment

Pathway, Workshop on Industrial Chapter, IPCC WG3, METI, Aug. 21, 2012

Modeling Consortium) 2012 Annual Meeting, Netherlands, November 12, 2012

15. Keigo Akimoto. Toward the establishment of a new international framework

11. K. Wada, F. Sano. Decomposition analysis of emission reduction scenarios

for the post-Kyoto Protocol era, International Environment Strategy WG,

with DNE21+ model, AMPERE Project Meeting in Utrecht, Netherlands,

Keidanren, Aug. 29, 2012

November 14, 2012

16. Keigo Akimoto. Energy and environment strategy in Japan, Lunch Meeting,

12. J. Oda, K. Akimoto, F. Sano, M. Nagashima, K. Wada, T. Tomoda. Analysis of

Ministry of Finance Japan, Sep. 4, 2012

CCS impact on Asian energy security, GHGT-11, Nov. 20, 2012, Kyoto, Japan

17. Keigo Akimoto. RITE ALPS project and trends of IPCC integrated scenarios,

13. F. Sano, K. Akimoto, K. Wada, M. Nagashima. Analysis of CCS diffusion

The first scenario initiative meeting, Central Research Institute of Electric Powerbarriers for CO2 emission reduction considering technology diffusion barriers in

Industry, Sep. 10, 2012

the real world, GHGT-11, Nov. 20, 2012, Kyoto, Japan

18. Keigo Akimoto. Energy policy movements, Kiryu Chamber of Commerce and

14. M. Nagashima, K. Akimoto, F. Sano, A. Hayashi, T. Homma, J. Oda, K. Wada,

Industry, Sep. 27, 2012

K. Tokushige, T. Tomoda. Comprehensive analysis of measures towards

19. Keigo Akimoto. Economic impact and issues of the energy and environment

sustainable development and climate stabilization:ALPS Scenarios, GHGT-11,

council options, Press Seminar, International Environmental Economic Institute,

Nov. 20, 2012, Kyoto, Japan

Sep. 24, 2012

15. Keigo Akimoto. Beyond Kyoto - More effective framework for climate

20. Junichiro Oda. Japanese steel industry: world leaders in energy efficiency,change, GHGT-11, Nov. 22, 2012, Kyoto, Japan

Heavy Industry Press Club, Oct. 3, 2012
21. Keigo Akimoto. Economic impacts and issues of options for energy and◆2012 Non-Journal Publication

environment provided by the Japanese Government, Opinion exchange meeting

1. Keigo Akimoto. Japan's strategy for the realization of true green growth, 5thfor invited overseas researchers, Japan Institute for Social and Economic Affairs,

High-tech Top Seminar, Keihanna, Feb.15, 2012

Oct. 24, 2012

2. Keigo Akimoto. Impact of energy issues on the Japanese economy, General

22. Keigo Akimoto. Peaceful use of nuclear power seen from the public living

meeting, Nagano Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mar. 26, 2012environment, Workshop, National Council for Peace and against Nuclear

3. K. Akimoto, T. Homma, F. Sano. Economic impact analysis in 2030 using RITE

Weapons, Oct. 24, 2012energy and economic models, Fundamental Issues Subcommittee, Advisory

23. Kenichi Wada. Evaluation, diagnostics and uncertainty in Integrated

Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, METI, May 9, 2012

Assessment Model / AMPERE project, The second scenario initiative meeting,

4. Keigo Akimoto. The cost of nuclear power and economic research, Study

Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry, Dec. 12, 2012

Session of Democrats parliamentary group, Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly, May

24. Keigo Akimoto. IMAC report, Energy-water-land interactions, The second

14, 2012

scenario initiative meeting, Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry,

5. K. Akimoto, T. Homma, F. Sano. Economic impact analysis in 2030 using RITE

Dec. 12, 2012energy and economic models (2), Fundamental Issues Subcommittee, Advisory55

R I TE To d a y 20132012 Paper, Presentation and Publication

Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology Group◆2012 Original Paper

interactions among global regulators, GlxR, SugR, and RamA in expression of

1. X. Peng, S. Yamamoto, A.A. Vertès, G. Keresztes, K. Inatomi, M. Inui and H.

ramA in Corynebacterium glutamicum. J. Bacteriol. (in press)

Yukawa. Global transcriptome analysis of the tetrachloroethene-dechlorinating
bacterium Desulfitobacterium hafniense Y51 in the presence of various◆2012 Oral Presentation (Domestic Conference)electron donors and terminal electron acceptors. J. Ind. Microbiol. Biotechnol.

1. Yuya Tanaka, Masayuki Inui, Hideaki Yukawa. Regulation of PTS gene

39:255-268. 2012.

expression in Corynebacterium glutamicum, Annual Meeting of the Japan

2. S. Hasegawa, K. Uematsu, Y. Natsuma, M. Suda, K. Hiraga, T. Jojima, M. Inui

Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Agrochemistry, 2012, 23-25 Marchand H. Yukawa. Improvement of the redox balance increases L-valine production

2012

by Corynebacterium glutamicum under oxygen deprivation conditions.

2. Masako Suda, Shogo Yamamoto, Wataru Gunji, Yasuhiro Moteki, Kazumi

Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 78:865-875. 2012.

Hiraga, Masayuki Inui, Hideaki Yukawa. Phenol production by metabolically

3. K. Uematsu, N. Suzuki, T. Iwamae, M. Inui and H. Yukawa. Increased fructose

engineered Corynebacterium glutamicum I: Metabolic design of phenol

1,6-bisphosphate aldolase in plastids enhances growth and photosynthesis of

biosynthesis pathway, Annual Meeting of the Japan Society for Bioscience,

tobacco plants. J. Exp. Bot. 63:3001-3009. 2012.

Biotechnology, and Agrochemistry, 2012, 23-25 March 2012

4. H. Teramoto, M. Inui and H. Yukawa. NdnR is an NAD-responsive

3. Shogo Yamamoto, Masako Suda, Keiro Watanabe, Yasuhiro Moteki, Kazumi

transcriptional repressor of the ndnR operon involved in NAD de novo

Hiraga, Masayuki Inui, Hideaki Yukawa, Phenol production by metabolically

biosynthesis in Corynebacterium glutamicum. Microbiology 158:975-982.

engineered Corynebacterium glutamicum II: Phenol production under2012.

oxygen deprivation, Annual Meeting of the Japan Society for Bioscience,

5. K. Uematsu, N. Suzuki, T. Iwamae, M. Inui and H. Yukawa. Alteration of

Biotechnology, and Agrochemistry, 2012, 23-25 March 2012

photosynthate partitioning by high-level expression of phosphoglucomutase in

4. Koichi Toyoda, Haruhiko Teramoto, Masayuki Inui, Hideaki Yukawa,tobacco chloroplasts. Biosci. Biotechnol. Biochem. 76:1315-1321. 2012.

Transcriptional regulation of GlxR regulon genes in Corynebacterium

6. S. Yamamoto, W. Gunji, H. Suzuki, H. Toda, M. Suda, T. Jojima, M. Inui and H.

glutamicum, Annual Meeting of the Japan Society for Bioscience,

Yukawa. Overexpression of genes encoding glycolytic enzymes in

Biotechnology, and Agrochemistry, 2012, 23-25 March 2012

Corynebacterium glutamicum enhances glucose metabolism and alanine

5. Taku Nishimura, Haruhiko Teramoto, Masayuki Inui, Hideaki Yukawa, Role ofproduction under oxygen deprivation conditions. Appl. Environ. Microbiol.

the SOS response during anaerobic nitrate respiration in Corynebacterium

78:4447-4457. 2012.

glutamicum, Annual Meeting of the Japan Society for Bioscience,

7. A.A. Vertès, M. Inui and H. Yukawa. Postgenomic approaches to using

Biotechnology, and Agrochemistry, 2012, 23-25 March 2012

corynebacteria as biocatalysts. Annu. Rev. Microbiol. 66:521-550. 2012.

6. Haruhiko Teramoto, Masayuki Inui, Hideaki Yukawa, Transcriptional regulation

8. K. Uematsu, N. Suzuki, T. Iwamae, M. Inui and H. Yukawa. Expression ofof NAD de novo biosynthesis operon in Corynebacterium glutamicum,

Arabidopsis plastidial phosphoglucomutase in tobacco stimulates

Annual Meeting of the Japan Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology, andphotosynthetic carbon flow into starch synthesis. J. Plant. Physiol.

Agrochemistry, 2012, 23-25 March 2012

169:1454-1462. 2012.

7. Toshihiro Tsujimoto, Koichi Toyoda, Haruhiko Teramoto, Masayuki Inui, Hideaki

9. H. Teramoto, M. Inui and H. Yukawa. Corynebacterium glutamicum CsoR

Yukawa. Transcriptome analysis of isobutanol stress response inacts as a transcriptional repressor of two copper/zinc-Inducible P1B-type ATPase

Corynebacterium glutamicum, 90th anniversary meeting of the Society ofoperons. Biosci.

Biotechnology of Japan, 24-26 Oct. 2012

10. Y. Tanaka, S. Ehira, H. Teramoto, M. Inui and H. Yukawa. Coordinatedregulation of gnd, which encodes 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase, by the◆2012 Oral Presentation (International Conference)

two transcriptional regulators GntR1 and RamA in Corynebacterium

1. Hideaki Yukawa. Advances in Oxygen-deprived Production of Organic Acids

glutamicum. J. Bacteriol. 194:6527-6536. 2012.

by Corynebacterium glutamicum, Symposium on Bio-based Production of

11. H. Teramoto, M. Inui and H. Yukawa. Corynebacterium glutamicum Zur

Organic Acids, 11 May 2012acts as a zinc-sensing transcriptional repressor of both zinc-inducible and

2. Nancy Dowe, Hideaki Yukawa and Daniel J. Schell. Corynebacterium as azinc-repressible genes involved in zinc homeostasis. FEBS J. 279:4385-4397.

biocatalyst for production of ethanol from biomass sugars, SIMB Annual

2012.

Meeting, 14 Aug. 2012

12. T. Jojima, T. Igari, W. Gunji, M. Suda, M. Inui and H. Yukawa. Identification ofa HAD superfamily phosphatase, HdpA, involved in 1,3-dihydroxyacetone◆2012 Non-Journal Publication

production during sugar catabolism in Corynebacterium glutamicum. FEBS

1. Hideaki Yukawa, Masayuki Inui(eds.), Microbiology Monographs: Biology and

Lett. 586:4228-4232. 2012.

Biotechnology of Corynebacterium glutamicum, Springer, Berlin. 2012.

13. K. Watanabe, H. Teramoto, N. Suzuki, M. Inui and H. Yukawa. Influence of

2. M. Sasaki, M. Inui and H. Yukawa, Microorganisms for xylitol production:

SigB inactivation on Corynebacterium glutamicum protein secretion. Appl.

focus on strain improvement. p.109-131. In S.S. da Silva and A.K. Chandel

Microbiol. Biotechnol. (in press)(eds.), D-Xylitol: Fermentative Production, Application and Commercialization,

14. S. Hasegawa, M. Suda, K. Uematsu, Y. Natsuma, K. Hiraga, T. Jojima, M. Inui

Springer. 2012.

and H. Yukawa. Engineering of Corynebacterium glutamicum for high-yield
L-valine production under oxygen deprivation conditions. Appl. Environ.
Microbiol. (in press)
15. T. Kubota, Y. Tanaka, K. Hiraga, M. Inui and H. Yukawa. Characterization of
shikimate dehydrogenase homologues of Corynebacterium glutamicum.
Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. (in press)
16. K. Toyoda, H. Teramoto, M. Inui and H. Yukawa. Involvement of regulatory

56

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Chemical Research Group◆2012 Original Paper

investigation of the absorption of carbon dioxide into alkanolamine solutions,

1. Shin Yamamoto, Hiroshi Machida, Yuichi Fujioka, Takayuki Higashii, Shingo

Modeling and Design of Molecular Materials 2012(Wroclaw University ofKazama. Novel amine solution development for high pressure CO2 capture andTechnology, Wroclaw, Poland), 11 Sep. 2012

application examination to IGCC gas, ACS Symposium Series, “Recent

7. Teruhiko kai. Current status of CCS technology in Japan, KIFEE2012(NTNU,

Advances in Post-Combustion CO2 Capture Chemistry” , Vol.1097, pp.87-98,

Trondheim, Norway), 11 Sep. 2012

2012

8. Ikuo Taniguchi, Shuhong Duan, Teruhiko Kai, Shingo Kazama. Preferential

2. Kazuya Goto, Satoshi Kodama, Hiromichi Okabe, Yuichi Fujioka. Energy

CO2 separation over H2 with poly(amidoamine) dendrimer immobilized in a poly

performance of new amine-based solvents for CO2 capture from blast furnace(ethylene glycol) network, 2012 AIChE Annual Meeting(David L. Lawrencegas, ACS Symposium Series, “Recent Advances in Post-Combustion CO2Convention Center, Pittsburgh, PA,USA), 2 Nov. 2012

Capture Chemistry” , Vol.1097, pp.71-85, 2012

9. Ikuo Taniguchi, Teruhiko Kai, Shuhong Duan, Shingo Kazama. Poly

3. Kazuya Goto, Firoz Alam Chowdhury, Satoshi Kodama, Hiromichi Okabe,(amidoamine) dendrimer containing polymeric membrane for preferential CO2

Yuichi Fujioka. CO2 absorption characteristics of 2-Isopropylaminoethanol(IPAE)

separation over H2-Interplay between CO2 separation properties andaqueous solution, ACS Symposium Series, “Recent Advances inmorphology, 11th International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Control

Post-Combustion CO2 Capture Chemistry” , Vol.1097, pp.317-331, 2012

Technologies (GHGT-11)(Kyoto,Japan), 19 Nov. 2012

4. Manabu Miyamoto, Ayato Takayama, Shigeyuki Uemiya, Katsunori Yogo.

10. Hidetaka Yamada, Firoz A. Chowdhury, Yoichi Matsuzaki, Kazuya Goto,

Study of Gas Adsorption Properties of Amidoamine-Loaded Mesoporous Silica

Takayuki Higashii, Shingo Kazama. Effect of alcohol chain length on carbon

for Examining Its Use in CO2 Separation, Journal of Chemical Engineering of

dioxide absorption into aqueous solutions of alkanolamines, 11th International

Japan, Vol.45, No.6, pp.395-400, 2012

Conference on Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies (GHGT-11)(Kyoto,Japan),

5. Hidetaka Yamada, Takayuki Higashii, Firoz A. Chowdhury, Kazuya Goto,

20 Nov. 2012

Shingo Kazama. Experimental study into carbon dioxide solubility and species

11. Katsunori Yogo, Hiromichi Takeyama, Kensuke Nagata. Pore-fill-type

distribution in aqueous alkanolamine solutions, WIT Trans. Ecol. Envir. 157,

Palladium-Porous Alumina Composite Membrane for Hydrogen Separation,

pp.515-523, 2012

11th International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies

6. Ikuo Taniguchi, Yuka Ootera, Firoz A, Chowdhury, Kin-ya Tomizaki, Teruhiko(GHGT-11)(Kyoto,Japan), 20 Nov. 2012

Kai, Shingo Kazama. Polymeric Membranes Composed of Polystyrenes Tethering

12. Tsuyoshi Watabe, Yosuke Nishizaka, Shingo Kazama, Katsunori Yogo.

Amino Acids for Preferential CO2 Separation over H2, Polymer Bulletin, Vol.69,

Development of Amine-Modified Solid Sorbents for Postcombustion CO2

Issue 4, pp.405-415, 2012

Capture, 11th International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Control

7. Ikuo Taniguchi, Shingo Kazama, Hiroshi Jinnai. Structural analysis of poly

Technologies (GHGT-11)(Kyoto,Japan), 20 Nov. 2012(amidoamine) dendrimer immobilized in cross-linked poly(ethylene glycol),13. Nobuhide Takahashi, Kei Matsuzaki, Tetsuya Funai, Takuya Wada, Hiroshi

Journal of Polymer Science PartB:Polymer Physics, Vol.50, Issue 16,

Fukunaga, Toru Takatsuka, Hiroshi Mano. Effects of membrane properties on

pp.1156-1164, 2012

CO2 desorption from chemical absorbents using a membrane flash process, 11th

8. Ikuo Taniguchi, Nathan G. Lovell. Low-temperature processable degradable

International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies (GHGT-11)

polyesters, Macromolecules, 45 (18), pp.7420-7428, 2012

(Kyoto,Japan), 20 Nov. 2012

9. Manabu Miyamoto, Yuichi Fujioka, Katsunori Yogo. Pure Silica CHA Type

14. Kazuya Goto, Shingo Kazama, Atsuyoshi Furukawa, Masahiro Serizawa,

Zeolite for CO2 Separation Using Pressure Swing Adsorption at High Pressure,

Satoshi Aramaki, Kazuo Shoji. Effect of CO2 purity on energy requirement of CO2

Journal of Materiasl Chemistry, 22 (38), pp.20186-20189, 2012

capture processes, 11th International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Control

10. Shuhong Duan, Ikuo Taniguchi, Teruhiko Kai, Shingo Kazama. Poly

Technologies (GHGT-11)(Kyoto,Japan), 20 Nov. 2012(amidoamine) dendrimer/poly(vinyl alcohol) hybrid membranes for CO2 capture,

15. Takafumi Tomioka, Toru Sakai, Hiroshi Mano. Carbon dioxide separation

Journal of Membrane Science, Vol.423-424, pp107-112, 2012technology from biogas by "membrane/absorption hybrid method", 11th
International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies (GHGT-11)◆2012 Oral Presentation(Kyoto,Japan), 21 Nov. 2012

1. Yuichi Fujioka, Kazuya Goto. Decreasing energy of CO2 recovery for CO2

16. Shuhong Duan, Ikuo Taniguchi, Teruhiko Kai, Shingo Kazama. Development

capture & storage, International Institute for Carbon-Neutral Energy Researchof poly(amidoamine) dendrimer/polyvinyl alcohol hybrid membranes for CO2(I2CNER) International Workshop(Kyushu Univ.), 2 Feb. 2012

capture at elevated pressures, 11th International Conference on Greenhouse

2. Teruhiko Kai. Poly(amidoamine) Dendrimer/Polymer Hybrid Membranes for

Gas Control Technologies (GHGT-11)(Kyoto,Japan), 21 Nov. 2012

CO2 Capture, International Institute for Carbon-Neutral Energy Research

17. Teruhiko Kai, Ikuo Taniguchi, Shuhong Duan, Shingo Kazama. Molecular(I2CNER) International Workshop(Kyushu Univ), 2 Feb. 2012

Gate Membrane: Poly(amidoamine) Dendrimer/polymer Hybrid Membrane

3. Shuhong Duan, Teruhiko Kai, Ikuo Taniguchi, Shingo Kazama. Development

Modules for CO2 Capture, 11th International Conference on Greenhouse Gas

of Poly(amidoamine) Dendrimer/Poly(vinyl alcohol) Hybrid Membranes for CO2

Control Technologies (GHGT-11)(Kyoto,Japan), 21 Nov. 2012

Separation, AMS7(The 7th Conference of Aseanian Membrane Society)(Pusan,

18. Yoichi Matsuzaki, Hidetaka Yamada, Firoz a. Chowdhury, Takayuki Higashii,

Korea), 6 July 2012

Shingo Kazama, Masami Onoda. Ab Initio study of CO2 capture mechanisms in

4. Ikuo Taniguchi. Room-temperature processable degradable plastics, Asianmonoethanolamine aqueous solution: reaction pathways from carbamate toWorkshop on Polymer Processing 2012(Kyoto Institute of Technology), 29 Aug.

bicarbonate, 11th International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Control

2012

Technologies (GHGT-11)(Kyoto,Japan), 21 Nov. 2012

5. Masataka Hino, Ikuo Taniguchi, Teruhiko Kai. Low-temperature processable

19. Shin Yamamoto, Hiroshi Machida, Yuichi Fujioka, Takayuki Higashii, Shingo

degradable polymers from renewable materials, Asian Workshop on Polymer

Kazama. Development of Chemical CO2 Solvent for High-Pressure CO2 Capture,

Processing 2012(Kyoto Institute of Technology), 30 Aug. 2012

11th International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies

6. Hidetaka Yamada, Yoichi Matsuzaki, Takayuki Higashii. Computational(GHGT-11)(Kyoto,Japan), 21 Nov. 201257

R I TE To d a y 20132012 Paper, Presentation and Publication

Chemical Research Group

CO2 Storage Research Group

20. Firoz Alam Chowdhury, Hidetaka Yamada, Takayuki Higashii, Yoichi◆2012 Original Paper

Matsuzaki, Shingo Kazama. Synthesis and Characterization of New Absorbents

1. Shun Chiyonobu, Motoyoshi Oda, Yuko Mori. Reconstruction of

for CO2 Capture, 11th International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Control

paleoceanographic conditions in the northwestern Pacific Ocean over the lastTechnologies (GHGT-11)(Kyoto,Japan), 21 Nov. 2012

500 ky based on calcareous nannofossils and planktic framiniferal assemblages,

21. Shingo Kazama, Kenji Haraya. Optimization of CO2 concentration captured

Marine micropaleontology, Vol.96-97, p29-37

by membrane technology - Possibility of reduction in CO2 capture energy and2. Shun Chiyonobu, Jumpei Morimoto, Masayuki Torii, Motoyoshi Oda.

cost -, 11th International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies

Pliocene/Pleistocene boundary and paleoceanographic significance of the upper(GHGT-11)(Kyoto,Japan), 21 Nov. 2012

Miyazaki Group, southern Kyusyu, Southwest Japan, based on calcareous

22. Masataka Hino, Ikuo Taniguchi, Teruhiko Kai, Katsunori Yogo.

nannofossils and planktic foraminiferal assemblages, The journal of theRoom-temperature processable polymer from renewable resources, Kyoto

geological society of Japan, Vol.118, p109-116, 2012

International Symposium on Biodegradable and Biobased Polymers(Kyoto

3. Yuzuru Yamamoto, Shun Chiyonobu, Lislie Gadenne, et al., Unconformity

Institute of Technology), 10 Dec. 2012

between the Late Miocene-Pliocene accretionary complex and Pliocene
trench-slope sediments, central Japan, Island Arc, Vol.21, p231-234
4. Takahiro Nakajima, Ziqiu Xue. Evaluation of a resistivity model derived fromtime-lapse well logging at the pilot-scale CO2 injection site, Nagaoka, Japan,
International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, Vol.12, p288-299, 2013
5. Shun Chiyonobu, Yuzuru Yamamoto, Saneatsu Saito. Middle-Upper Miocene
calcareous nannofossil biostratigraphy in the southern Boso Peninsula, central
Japan: implications for basin evolution and fault tectonics in the
subduction-accretion system, Tectonophisics, submission
6. Susumu Sakashita, Dai Nobuoka, Naoshi Aoki, Hiroyuki Azuma, Ziqiu Xue.
Appilcation of VSP at Nagaoka site, Exploration Geophysics, submission
7. Keigo Kitamura, Ziqiu Xue, Shun Chiyonobu, Tatsuya Yamada, Osamu
Nishizawa. The Effect of Lamina on Super Critical CO2 Behavior in Porous
Sandstone: Investigations from Elastic Wave Velocity, Journal of MMIJ, Vol.128,
p511-518, 2012
8. Duoxing Yang, Ziqiu Xue, Simon A. Mathias. Analysis of Momentum Transfer
in a Lid-Driven Cavity Containing a Brinkman-Forchheimer Medium, Transport
in Porous Media, Vol.92, No.1, p101-118, 2012◆2012 Oral Presentation
1. Tamotsu Kiyama, Ziqiu Xue. Experimental study on the mesurement for
shreshold pressure of super critical CO2, Spring meeting of the Mining andMaterials Processing Institute of Japan, 26-28 March 2012
2. Tamotsu Kiyama, Ziqiu Xue. Study of measuring method for supercritical CO2
threshold pressure on several mudstone, Japan Geoscience Union meeting
2012, 20 May 2012
3. Takahiro Nakajima, Ziqiu Xue, Jiro Watanabe, Yoshinori Ito, Susumu
Sakashita. An attempt of evaluation of well integrity at Nagaoka site using
ultrasonic logging and CBL data, Japan Geoscience Union meeting 2012, 20
May 2012
4. Shun Chiyonobu, Takahiro Nakajima, Yi Zhang, Takeshi Tsuji, Ziqiu Xue.
Impact of lithofacies and reservoir hetorogeneity on distribution of CO2 atnagaoka pilot site, Japan Geoscience Union meeting 2012, 20 May 2012
5. Tetsuya Kogure, Nishizawa Osamu, Chiyonobu Shun, Yazaki Toshihiro, Seiji
Shibatani, Ziqiu Xue. Water saturation estimated by X-ray CT scan and massbalance methods during relative permeability measurements, Japan Geoscience
Union meeting 2012, 20 May 2012
6. Makiko Takagishi, Tsutomu Hashimoto, Shigeo Horikawa, Kinichiro
Kusunose, Koichi Takizawa, Ziqiu Xue. Micro seismic monitoring at CO2
geological storage site - Initial data results observed at Cranfield in the U.S.-,
Japan Geoscience Union meeting 2012, 20 May 2012
7. Ziqiu Xue. Japan nagaoka pilot project and recent CCS research activities,
International Workshop on CO2 geological sequestration, China, 5 July 2012
8. Jun Kita. Overview and comparison of environmental assessment for the CCS,
IEA-GHG, 2012 Environmental Impacts of CO2 Storage Workshop, USA, 17-19
July 201258

2012 Paper, Presentation and Publication

R I TE To d a y 2013

9. Masatoshi Hayashi, Akifumi Shimamoto, Yuji Watanabe, Jun Kita. Microbial
nitrification activity in the surface sediment as a biological monitoring tool for
CO2 leakage, IEA-GHG Environmental Impacts Workshop, 18 July 2012
10. Saeko Mito, Ziqiu Xue. Nagaoka post-monitoring update and recent
research activities in Japan, Carbon storage R&D project review meeting,Pittsburgh, USA, 22 Aug. 2012
11. Hiroki Horiuchi, Tetsuya Kogure, Ziqiu Xue, Toshifumi Matsuoka.
Measurement of deformation of berea sand stone by using optical fibre, Fall
meeting of the Mining and Materials Processing Institute of Japan, 11 Sep.
2012
12. Shinya Tsuji, Tetsuya Kogure, Ziqiu Xue, Susumu Nishio, Hiromichi
Kameyama, Toshifumi Matsuoka. Analysis of the character of CO2 flood in
porous sand stones by using X-CT visualization, Fall meeting of ｔhe Mining
and Materials Processing Institute of Japan, 11 Sep. 2012
13. Jun Kita. Environmental impact assessment of offshore CO2 storage,
Meeting of Atmosphere and ocean research institute the university of tokyo, 8-9
Nov. 2012
14. Saeko Mito, Ziqiu Xue. Geochemical trapping of CO2 in saline aquifer
storage; results of the repeated formation fluid sampling at the Nagaoka site,
GHGT11, 18-22 Nov. 2012
15. Yuki Asahara, Saeko Mito, Ziqiu Xue, Yuji Yamashita, Kazutoshi Miyashiro.
Chemical impacts of CO2 flooding on well composite samples: experimental
assessment of well integrity for CO2 sequestration, GHGT11, 18-22 Nov. 2012
16. Takahiro Nakajima, Ziqiu Xue. Evaluation of CO2 Saturation at Nagaoka
Pilot-Scale Injection Site Derived from the Time-Lapse Well Logging Date,
GHGT11, 18-22 Nov. 2012
17. Takahiro Nakajima, Analysis of P-wave and resistivity data in CO2
distributed area at Nagaoka site, JOGMEC-TRC week 2012 Forum1, 27 Nov.
2012
◆2012 Non-Journal Publication
1. Shun Chiyonobu, Nakajima Takahiro, Aoki Naoshi, Takeshi Tsuji, Takahashi
Akihisa, Xue Ziqiu. Geological modeling and its application of Nagaoka pilot
site, implication for reservoir heterogeneity, International Geological Congress,
6 Aug. 2012
2. Tsutomu Hashimoto, Makiko Takagishi, Kinichiro Kusunose, Shigeo
Horikawa, Ziqiu Xue. Microseismic monitoring at CCS demonstration sites Introduction of initial data results -, Annual meeting of Japan Society ofEngineering Geology, 1-2 Nov. 2012
3. Jun Kita, Hideaki Kinoshita. Effects of Impurities in CO2 stream on Marine
Organisms, 11th International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Technologies(GHGT-11), ICC Kyoto, 18-22 Nov. 2012
4. Masatoshi Hayashi, Jun Kita, Yuji Watanabe, Akifumi Shimamoto. Effects ofelevated pCO2 on the nitrification activity of microorganisms in marine
sediment, 11th International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Technologies(GHGT-11), ICC Kyoto, 18-22 Nov. 2012
5. Takahiro Nakajima, Ziqiu Xue, Jiro Watanabe, Yoshinori Ito, Susumu
Sakashita. Assessment of Well Integrity at Nagaoka CO2 Injection Site Using
Ultrasonic Logging and Cement Bond Log Data, 11th International Conferenceon Greenhouse Gas Technologies (GHGT-11), ICC Kyoto, 18-22 Nov. 2012

59

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