2012vol. 07

Annual Report■Transition to Public Interest Incorporated Foundation■Foreword

Promotion of CCS
Yoichi Kaya
President, Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth■R&D Activities

03

Research Planning Group

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

04

Systems Analysis Group

Synthetic Scenario Generation for Climate Change
and Sustainable Development

08

Molecular Microbiology andBiotechnology Group

Global Biorefinery Trends and Research Overview

13

Chemical Research Group

Challenges for Advanced Industrializing CO2 CaptureTechnologies

17

CO2 Storage Research Group

Development of CO2 Geological Storage Technology
for Practical Use

21■Topics

24■2011 Paper, Presentation and Publication

31

Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the EarthTransition to Public Interest Incorporated Foundation
Based on a new act enacted in December 2008, Research Institute of Innovative Technology for
the Earth (RITE) was granted the public interest corporation authorization by the Prime Ministeron November 25, 2011 and made transition to the public interest incorporated foundation on
December 1, 2011.
Japan has been recognizing the importance of “business conducted by organizations inprivate sector for public interest purposes” in a social and economic system and reviewed the
public interest corporation system to further promote such activities. As a result of this review,
general incorporated associations or general incorporated foundations could be founded only
by registration and also, when authorized for their highly public interest services, the generalincorporated association or general incorporated foundation could be referred to as the public
interest incorporated associations or public interest incorporated foundation.
To implement “New Earth 21” plan announced by the Japanese Government, RITE waslaunched in July 1990 as a general incorporated foundation based on Civic Code. Since then,focusing on fundamentals of the plan, “developing innovative environmental technologies”, RITE
has been working as an international center of excellence to accelerate the plan.
In view of the objectives of foundation, the Board of Directors and Councilors of RITE resolved
to proceed with the transition to the “public interest incorporated foundation” in June 2009. Since
then, amendments of articles of incorporation, renewal of board members, new organizational
design of Board of Directors and Councilors and the like have been drafted and discussed.
The drafted amendments and other changes were approved by the Board of Directors andCouncilors in March 2011. The Board also adopted application for public interest corporation
authorization, which was submitted to the Cabinet Office on May 13, 2011 and successfully paved
the way to the transition to the public interest incorporated foundation of RITE.
The changes made along with the transition include: reduction in the number of councilors
and directors from dozens of members to about ten members to achieve more mobility as
the organization; and establishing a new framework to ensure corporate operations to besustainably appropriate for the public interest incorporated foundation, that is, granting theBoard of Councilors and Directors additional rights to make ultimate decisions on operationally
important matters, such as approval of settlement of accounts and amendments of the articles ofincorporation, to the existing right of appointment and dismissal of directors.
On the other hand, in view of RITE’s history to the foundation, no changes were made withregard to the fundamental sections in the articles of incorporation including “objectives” and“works”. (For more information, see RITE’s website)
Under the leadership of newly elected president, Prof. Dr. Kaya (former vice director), a
successor to Dr. Akiyama the former president, all researchers and officials in new RITE are deeply
aware of the meaning of “public interest” and committed to fulfilling our mission on research anddevelopment projects for public interest in the field of global environment protection. As always,
we appreciate your continuing support and cooperation for our activities.

01

Foreword

Promotion of CCS
Yoichi Kaya, President,
Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth

Last year in Japan most focus has been given on the big earthquake in east Japan and theaccident of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. It however does not necessarily mean that seriousnessof global warming faded out. At COP 17 held in South Africa last December the target of keeping
the global temperature rise within 2 or 1.5 degrees was clearly declared. We notice that achievementof this target is a hard task, as factors accelerating emission of CO2 rather than those reducing it
have been increasing. The key factor is economic development of developing countries but anotherimportant factor is the barrier set to nuclear expansion since the accident of Fukushima Daiichi.
The government of Japan does not make any decision on future energy strategy yet, but often
expresses its will of relaxing reliance on nuclear power. It is therefore almost certain that nuclear
power will shrink in future in a considerable degree. Although renewables have been promoted
all over the world, their development will be limited by several barriers such as present high costs
and output variability. Under these conditions we also notice that a new positive factor appearedin the situation of fossil fuels of which resource finiteness has been worried for long; the increase inavailability of unconventional gases such as shale gas in the United States.
Taking all these situations into consideration we foresee that fossil fuels will still keep the
position of principal actor in energy supply at least for next several decades. Limiting CO2 emission
under these conditions inescapably lead us to use of CCS. However we notice there are a few but
serious barriers to development of CCS. The first is the high cost and/or energy required of CO2
removal, and the second is low public acceptance particularly in Europe where most environmentalgroups and/or local governments are not in favor of underground storage of carbon oxide.
Taking into account that carbon dioxide is, different from ordinary pollutants, harmless andthere are many underground sites where carbon dioxide is naturally stored, we may say that CCS
is a technology to be safely implemented in practice. We should therefore do a lot of efforts for
improving public acceptance of CCS.
Our institute RITE has investigated recovery technology, storing technology and evaluation ofsafety of CCS and therefore is proud of standing at the top of CCS research in the world. We will
do more efforts for developing technologies for mitigating global warming, particularly those of
CCS and therefore ask the readers to support our institute conducting R&D along this direction.

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Research Planning Group

Research Planning Group
Recent Activities and Challenges on Innovative Mitigation Technologies to Prevent a Global Warming
1. Introduction

2. CCS

A drastic cut in CO2 emissions is required to preventa global warming. According to “Energy Technology Perspective 2010”1) issued by International Energy Agency(IEA), emissions of CO2 should be decreased by 14Gt
CO2/yr to achieve 50% reduction in global CO2 emissions
by 2050. Considering economical progress of developing
countries, this means that 48GtCO2 /yr is necessary to
reduce from the baseline emissions (Figure 1). Such a
drastic reduction cannot be achieved by a sole technology but a combination of many useful technologies isneeded. In this context, some innovative mitigation options like “Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage (CCS)”
or “Biomass Utilization” becomes remarkable. Estimatedcosts of these two technologies are shown in Figure 2.
Both are relatively cheep and generated power from theseis stable compared to the case of photovoltaic or wind
power.
Prior to reports from research groups of RITE, I would
like to survey trends in CCS and biomass utilization, on
which RITE has been focusing for many years. I would
add that some results used in this report were given in
NEDO’s research program, “Total System of Zero-emission Coal-fired Power Generation Project”.

2-1. CCS Project
Global CCS Institute (GCCSI) published “The Global Status of CCS: 2011”2) in autumn, 2011, which summarizes CCS projects activities in the world. There,
projects are classified into the following 6 stages basedon degree of progress: Identify, Evaluate, Define, Execute, Operate, and Closure. The first “Identify” is thestage of site screening, “Evaluate” is site assessment andpre-feasibility study, “Define” is site selection and feasibility study, “Execute” is project execution, design andinstallation, and “Operate” means asset operation. The
final “Closure” is the stage that injection is completed
and asset is decommissioned. Based on the project lists
made by GCCSI, I reconfigure the start year of project/capture volume relations by capture options (emission
sites and capture technology; Figure 3) and storage options (EOR, EGR, and saline aquifer etc.; Figure 4).
First, Figure 3 shows that emission sites of “Operation” staged projects are mainly a natural gas processing. CCS projects in power generation and synthetic
fuel production will start in 2014. Post combustion andpre combustion are appeared in the same proportion
but Oxyfuel is low. When synthetic gas production is
included, pre combustion becomes the largest.
Next, figure 4 shows that a major storage part ofmany CCS projects is EOR. Storage projects using sa-

Figure 1 Contribution of mitigation technologies(IEA, Energy Technology Perspective 2010)04

R&D Activities

Research Planning Group

Figure 2 Comparison of CO2 reduction cost
(GCCSI “The Global Status of CCS:2011”)

line aquifers like Sleipner, In Salah, and Snohvit are famous but storage amounts of CO2 are small. In CCS projects in synthetic gas production or power plants which
will start from 2014, EOR is also major. Storage projects
in depleted gas fields or saline aquifers appear in 2015
and then the proportion of these grows gradually.
Project trends are changeable under the influence ofpolitical or economical changes. As already described,
earlier CCS projects are combination of capture in natural gas processing and EOR. This is mainly an economical reason. In natural gas processing, CO2 removal is already included in the process and there is no use to
newly build a capture plant. In addition, EOR gains profits derived from increase in oil production. These factors
make a project be sustainable without carbon price or
governmental subsidies. Expecting a stable carbon market and large monetary support from government, power
sector plans CCS projects from 2014. However carbon
policy has not been established yet in the world and suchlarge assistances are not promising because of economical crises. Recently Logannet Project in UK was reported
to be suspended. Such suspend of project seems to beoften occurred in the future. We need to establish worldwide policies for stable CCS implementation. In order toimplement CCS sustainably, the following three are necessary; 1) enough, timely and stable support from government (incentives and regulations), 2) R&D to decrease cost, energy penalty, and risks, 3) community
engagements in an earlier stage.

Technology comparison is needed to choose the bestmatched technology, but there is no common word atpresent. We also have to answer the following questions
to start geological storage: How safely we store CO2 into
underground? How we account amount of reduced CO2 ?
But procedures to answer these questions are not established yet.
In this context, Canada proposed to establish a new
Technical Committee (TC) of CCS in International Organization for Standardization (ISO). After voting, Technical Management Board decided to establish the following new TC:
Technical Committee ISO/TC 265 (provisional)• Title -provisional: Carbon capture and storage(CCS)• Scope -provisional: Standardization of materials,
equipment, environmental planning and management, risk management, quantification and verification, and related activities in the field of carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS).
Excluded: equipment and materials used in drilling,
production, transport by pipelines already coveredby ISO/TC67.
• Central secretary: Canada SCC• Members (October, 2011)◆ P-members; Australia, Canada, China, France,
Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea Republic of, Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Switzerland, United
Kingdom◆ O-members: Argentina, Brazil, Czech Republic,
Egypt, Finland, India, Iran, Islamic Republic of ,New Zealand, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, USA
Title and Scope are provisional at present and TC is
required to decide them and elaborate a draft businessplan in 18 months.
In accordance with establishment of new TC, a na-

2-2. International standardization on CCS
International standardization is also an importantfactor to expand CCS in the world. For capturing CO2,
three different procedures, Post, Pre and Oxyfuel havebeen developed and they contain many separation technologies like absorption, adsorption, and membrane etc.
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Research Planning Group

Figure 3 CCS Projects (classified by emission sites and capture technologies)

Figure 4 CCS Projects (classified by storage options)tional mirror committee is required to be established.
RITE received a commission of National Committee Secretariate from Japanese Industrial Standard Committee(JISC) in December 2011 and started working for CCS
standardization.

non-competitiveness with foods.
Figure 6 shows IEA roadmap of biofuels for transport4) to achieve 50% reduction in CO2 emissions in theworld. Advanced bioethanol production and development of BTL becomes a central issue. As aircraft fuels are
difficult to be replaced by other technologies, use in thisfield will be important.
Problems in biomass use are in difficulty in supply of
widely-spread biomass, low productivity in conversion
processes, and higher cost. The roadmap shows milestones which contains demonstration of reliable, commercial-scale production of cellulosic ethanol, BTL diesel, HVO and bio-SG in 2010-2015 and demonstration of
economically feasible production of algae-derived biofuel and other novel biofuel routes in 2020-2030.

3. Biomass utilization
Recent activities in biomass utilization are describedin detail in “Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation”3) published by IPCC
in 2011. Figure 5 shows a comparison of lifecycle CO2
emissions between bioenergies and conventional fossil
energies. In many cases bioenergies can reduce CO2 emissions compared to the case of corresponding fossil energy use. Among bioenergies, use of lignocellulose is attracting a lot of attention from the aspect of06

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Research Planning Group

forward R&D for the future. We are required to develop
and use practically innovative technologies describedabove as soon as possible.

4. Conclusion
At the end of 2011, we see slump of nuclear power
after accidents of Fukushima nuclear power stations, remarkable progress of shale gas, and expectations on renewable energies. World economy is not good as Euro
crisis symbolizes and progress of CCS seems to be slow
down. Japanese government plans to present an energy
best-mix after 3.11 by this summer. Japan was decided
not to join a second round of carbon cuts under the Kyoto Protocol but continues own efforts for reducing CO2
emissions. It is not easy to forecast the future figure ofenergy or economy but the only a certain way is to go

References
1.
2.
3.
4.

IEA, “Energy Technology Perspective 2010”(2010)GCCSI, “The Global Status of CCS: 2011” (2011)
IPCC, “Special Report on Renewable Energy
Sources and Climate Change Mitigation” (2011)
IEA, “Technology Roadmap, Biofuels for Transport” (2011)

Figure 5 Life-cycle CO2 emissions of Transport fuels(IPCC, SRREN 2011)

Figure 6 Roadmap of Biofuels(Technology Roadmaps - Biofuels for Transport- 2011)07

R&D Activities

Systems Analysis Group

Systems Analysis Group
Synthetic Scenario Generation for Climate Change and Sustainable Development
sible future scenarios through quantification of multiple
aspects of society on the assumptions that the real-worldsociety consists of a wide range of values. This approachallows us to inform decision makers of more appropriate
strategies toward sustainable development and climate
stabilization from longer and wider perspectives. This
study is expected to make contribution to create a new
climate change framework and to set appropriate climate
targets in a timely fashion.

1. Introduction
RITE has been working on development of a synthetic scenario for climate change control and sustainable development in a project called “ALternative Pathways toward Sustainable development and climate stabilization(ALPS)” since FY 2007.
As a result of the 17th Conference of the Parties(COP17) to the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held in late 2011, global
action to tackle climate change is expected to be taken
under the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action in apractical sense, bringing all Parties onto one track, although the agreement was made to extend the Kyoto
Protocol as a formality.
As observed in the COP17 negotiations and in the domestic policy making process, different actors have different policy priorities based on their economic levels
and other inherent challenges, which leads to a difficultyin creating a well-coordinated uniform policy. Climatechange is not the only issue on the global agenda, so it
should be addressed in a balanced manner under multiple social objectives. Conventional global abatement scenarios may be too simplified to capture richness of detailand context of the real world situation. The results revealthat climate policy with the highly-idealized premises
sometimes does not deliver relevant outcomes, or rather
causes unduly confusion to the society.
The ALPS project aims at providing alternative plau-

2. Scenarios for quantitative analysis
Modeling simulations are powerful tools to support
decision making even though they tend to assume perfect information or perfectly rational behavior. At thesame time, it is important to bear in mind that the realworld is full of variety and complex. The gap between thereal world and virtual model world creates a risk of sending a wrong message. Therefore this ALPS project starts
from a deep understanding of the current world situation and historical trends in order to avoid such trap.
Based on the insights gained from the socio-economic
analysis above, narrative storylines with great details areworked out from broader perspectives.
Three different types of qualitative scenarios are developed: 1) Socio-economic scenarios, 2) Climate Change
Policy scenarios, and 3) Representative Concentration
Pathways (RCP) scenarios. Furthermore sub-scenarios
focus on the subject matter of development and diffusion

Figure 1 Scenario Groups of the ALPS project08

R&D Activities

Systems Analysis Groupof climate friendly technologies.
With regard to the socio-economic scenarios, a key
scenario driver is technological progress, which involves
significant uncertainty. Although policy can have a impact on technology progress to some extent, other factors
bring larger uncertainty about the future technologicalchange beyond policy impact. It is quite difficult to forecast future innovation and technological progress withhigh accuracy, so we prepare two discrete scenarios tocover the range of uncertainty. Scenario A (Medium
technological progress scenario) illustrates a gradualshift from rapid economic development toward a wellmatured economy especially in developed countries.
Scenario B (High technological progress scenario) describes a future world of very high economic growth withbrilliant innovation.
As for scenarios of climate change priority in the
broader global agenda, we develop three different narratives. Scenario I named “Pluralistic society scenario” isapproximate to the current real world situation with people’s diverse values in nature. This scenario is premisedon the existence of various barriers to technology diffusion. Scenario II is a “Climate policy prioritized scenar-io” is a one under which climate change policy is prioritized and people’s behavior are rational in the sense thatmitigation measures are taken in a cost effective way. This
assumption was implicitly adopted by most of the traditional climate change assessment. Scenario III called“Energy security prioritized scenario” in which each nation puts high priority on securing domestic energy resources from energy security perspective.
Our future emissions scenarios are fully harmonizedwith a set of four RCPs for IPCC AR5. The RCPs havebeen selecting from existing literature to span the fullrange of possible trajectories for future greenhouse concentration: a very high emission scenario leading to 8.5
W/m2, a high stabilization scenario leading to 6 W/m2, anintermediate stabilization scenario leading to 4.5 W/m2
and a low mitigation scenario leading to 2.6 W/m2 (RCP
3-PD). Additionally we go over 3.7 W/m2 scenario, whichcomes to five emission pathways in total.

3. Development of models
The ALPS project performs comprehensive modelingscenarios supplemented with the existing models developed by RITE. Scenarios associated with climate change

Figure 2 Models for the development of ALPS quantitative scenarios09

R&D Activities

Systems Analysis GroupIn accordance with the CO2 emissions pathways tomeet the five specific CO2 reduction levels as shown figure 3, i.e. ALPS Baseline, CP6.0-stabilization at around
750 ppm-CO2 eq., CP4.5-stabilization at around 650
ppm-CO2 eq., CP3.7-stabilization at around 550 ppmCO2 eq., and CP3.0-stabilization at around 450 ppm-CO2
eq., the scenarios are analyzed from multiple aspects respectively. Figure 4 shows the corresponding trajectories
of global mean temperature, including estimation of nonCO2 GHGs emissions that is consistent with each stabilization scenario. In the ALPS CP3.0 scenario, a maximum
global mean temperature is expected to increase within
2°C against pre-industrial global mean temperature level.
In terms of impacts of climate change, it is desirable tocurb GHGs emissions as low as possible, but it is not necessary ideal pathway from multiple criteria because realworld trade-offs require us to address a diverse of challenges.
Figure 5 illustrate Marginal abatement cost (MAC)
curves. The MAC in 2050 is estimated to amount to 6$/
tCO2 for CP6.0, 28$/tCO2 for CP4.5, 137$/tCO2 forCP3.7 and 376$/tCO2 for CP3.0 respectively. Comparedwith the other scenarios, the CP3.0 scenario indicates
rapidly growing MAC, implying huge economic burden
on society.
Figure 6 shows energy security index associated with
ALPS A-Baseline, CP4.5- stabilization at around 650
ppm-CO2 eq., and CP3.0-stabilization at around 450
ppm-CO2 eq. It is commonly believed that energy security will be improved by reducing imports of oil as making progress in mitigation efforts. Our quantitative as-need to be developed in the context of sustainable development with a wide-ranging set of models to reflect a
multifaceted reality. The DNE21+ Model assesses CO2
emissions from fuel combustion with great details of national, sectoral and technological descriptions. Alongwith the food demand-supply model, fresh water model,
and land use model, a wide variety of plausible futurescenarios and narratives are assessed in an integrated
and consistent manner.
The models are chosen appropriately in accordancewith time frame and objectives of the assessment. For
near and medium term analysis, detailed descriptions of
the nation, of sector and of technology are highlighted.
For longer term analysis, interactions between climate
impacts and socio-economic activities are more heavily
weighted.

4. Synthetic assessment of socio-economic
scenarios for climate change control andsustainable development
Given the diversity in society, a scenario assessmentwith limited indices related to GHGs emissions and mitigation cost is insufficient. The ALPS project develops
quantitative scenarios which are consistent with narrative storylines by using existing models developed by
RITE harmonized with data across these models. This
enables us to conduct a broad assessment of sustainable
development, including a wide variety of socio-economic issues as well as energy and climate change, and to support multi-criteria decision making from broader perspectives.

Figure 3 Scenarios of emissions reduction levels in ALPS (Global CO2 emissions)Note) The Representative Concentration Pathway (RCPs) are new IPCC emission scenarios to achieve respective four radiative forcing levels.

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Figure 4 Global-mean temperature change (°C) associated with scenarios
Note) The gap between ALPS scenarios and RCPs mainly comes from the difference in estimation of non CO2 greenhouse gas emissions.

Figure 5 CO2 marginal abatement cost curves associated with scenarios (Scenario A-I)

sessment, however, shows that energy security can beworsen by reducing domestic coal dependence and by increasing gas utilization in some regions. Energy security
can vary across regions depending on emissions reduction levels and other factors.
Figure 7 shows food security index, which is definedas the imports of food in relation to GDP. Given the factthat food is traded globally, it would be appropriate toconsider purchasing power for food, rather than degreeof self-sufficiency. Food security index will be improved
as GDP increase, but it can be fallen when GDP goes
down due to excessive mitigation efforts. If food productivity improvement cannot meet the increase of food demand, food security can be degraded due to cropland expansion which potentially pushes up food prices. Climatechange has an impact on food production and abrupt climate change can result in adverse effect on the world
food supplies and place upward pressure on food prices.
Furthermore, growth in the use of food crops for biofuels
which compete with them for land resources could potentially exert additional pressure on the food prices. The
food security index below takes these factors into accountin a consistent and comprehensive manner, and reveals
that it is not necessarily improved when significantly reducing CO2 emissions, which may be counterintuitive
results.
We, current generation, need to take appropriate measures for the welfare of future generations in order to realize sustainable development. Without adequate mitigation actions, the wellbeing of the future generation can be
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Figure 6 Energy security index across regions(Scenario A-I, the index is normalized to an US 2000 value of 100)

Figure 7 Food security index across regions(Scenario A-I, the index is normalized to a Japan 2000 value of 100)

damaged. On the other hand, too much burden to thecurrent generation may harm the present economy, debilitating other related activities, and can end up having anegative impact on the future generation. Balancing multiple objectives in society is important to achieve sustainable development, and CO2 mitigation efforts need to bemade in a fair balanced manner as well.

developed in order to assess narrative scenarios in a consistent and quantitative manner. The results of this study
are expected to not only make scientific contribution to
the IPCC but also to serve as fundamental information
for decision making in global and domestic climatechange policy.

5. Concluding remarks
In the ALPS project, synthetic scenarios toward sustainable development and climate stabilization are generated. For that purpose group of assessment models are12

R&D Activities

Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology Group

Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology Group
Global Bioreﬁnery Trends and Research Overview
the present biorefinery have elevated the shift to nonfood-based biomass resources to the status of the mostimportant subject of the biorefinery sector. Agricultural
Outlook 2011 report jointly by OECD and FAO (Foodand Agriculture Organization of the United Nations),
says that higher prices of agriculture commodities suchas crops will persist in the 2011-2020 period due to the
expanding consumption by an increasing population andeconomic growth of emerging and developing countries(Figure 2).

1. Introduction
The biorefinery is a relatively recent concept proposedby, among others, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)to encompass technologies and industries that enableproduction of chemicals and liquid fuels from biomass
instead of from fossil feedstocks (Figure 1). The biomass
is of plant origin, enabling a virtuous carbon-neutral cycle of plant growing, processing, harvesting, and burning, meaning that its use does not contribute to net
changes in the level of atmospheric CO2. Since the 1990s,
the transition from oil petrorefinery to biorefinery has
been one of the key strategic scientific missions of the U.
S. Consequently, the advancement of technologies relevant to the implementation of the biorefinery vision is apriority U.S. policy to achieve a sustainable society lessdependent on fossil resources in the 21st century. The
EU, like the U.S., has recognized the importance of biorefinery, and supported the introduction of biofuels anddevelopment of biorefinery using tax incentives, etc. According to a new biofuels roadmap report published lastyear by the International Energy Agency (IEA), biofuels
can provide up to 27% of world transportation fuel by
2050. Biofuel production in 2050 will be 10 times thepresent production but require only three times the existing area of cultivated land for biofuel plants because future technological improvements are expected to enhancethe overall productivity.
Recent trends where competition between biofuel
feedstocks and food supply posed a serious downside of

2. Biofuels
The 2011 world ethanol production was estimated tobe 23.4 billion gallons. This represents more than 20%
growth since 2009 and was essentially achieved by converting corn starch or sugarcane-derived sucrose. The
production in the U.S. accounts for ca. 60% of the global
production and its demand will continue to grow due tothe approval of E15 (ethanol-gasoline blends containing
up to 15 percent ethanol by volume) in 2010. As much as
40% of the U.S. corn crop is going into ethanol production, therefore material conversion of biofuels into cellulosic biomass from grain is expected without loss of time.
The U.S. government has strongly backed biofuel projects
which can use agricultural residues such as corn stover orso-called energy grasses such as switchgrass. Cellulosic
biofuels are able to eliminate competition with foods, andeffectively reduce CO2 emissions as demonstrated by Life
Cycle Assessment (LCA) analyses. At present, the con-Figure 1 Productions of biofuels and green chemicals from non-food biomass

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Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology Group

Figure 2 Increase of global food consumption (left) and rising crop prices (right)

struction and operation of large scale cellulosic ethanol
plants scheduled earlier in the U.S. seems to be behindschedule due to technological constraints associated withfermentation inhibitors derived from the pre-treatmentof lignocellulosic biomass.
The 2011 global production capacity of biofuels, estimated at 44.6 billion gallons, will expand up to 20% by
2015 (Lux Research). In Europe, biofuel consumption informs such as biodiesel has slowed down due to tax increases on biofuels resulting from concerns of environmental destruction in biofuel production processes etc.,
or the economic recession of recent years.
However, energy consumption and investment inbiofuels sector have continued to expand in emerging
countries such as China and India as well as East Asianand South American countries. In Japan, the Basic Energy Plan revised by the Ministry of Economy, Trade andIndustry established the promotion of biofuels for transportation in 2010, aiming at a biofuels use of around 3%of the gasoline consumption by 2020.

estimated to have the potential to generate $70B at 2015
or $100B at 2020.

4. Technology development: the RITE Bioprocess(Growth-Arrested Bioprocess)Our group has developed an efficient biomass utilization technology based on intrinsic characteristics of coryneform bacteria. The process was named "RITE Bioprocess" (a growth-arrested bioprocess), and it has so far
enabled elevated productivities of organic acids and biofuels. This pioneering technology enables the simultaneous utilization of mixed sugars from cellulosic biomass inbiorefinery settings. In collaboration with a private company, we applied it in a cellulosic ethanol production system, earning the Grand Prize at the 18th Nikkei Global
Environment Award (see RITE Today 2009). What ismore, our process has evoked the interest of international
academia and their researchers. Our group leader wasawarded the 2011 fellowship award from The Society for
Industrial Microbiology (SIM), the first Japanese scientist to receive the award (see Topics). Moreover a Germangroup has been following our footsteps and carried out
additional research using coryneform bacteria; they 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 maintechnological features of the RITE Bioprocess are givenin the following paragraphs.

3. Green chemicals
The growth of green (renewable) chemical production via bioprocessing is expected lead to a sustainableindustry. Although more advanced technologies are necessary for the production relative to those for biofuels, avariety of product groups and integrated market size are
predicted in the biorefinery sector. The use of non-foodfeedstocks like corn stover or switchgrass is also an essential requirement. As a target of green products, a new
trend puts emphasis on producing commodity chemicals
rather than fine chemicals such as 1,3-propanediol,which have been the early focus of biochemical engineering. The green production of acrylic acid and isoprene,
products which comprise large industrial markets, aswell as carboxylic acids, amines and aromatic compounds
have begun to grow. Various joint ventures between companies have been established in these green chemicalbusinesses. The future market size of green chemical is4-1. Technological attributes of the RITE Bioprocess
In the RITE Bioprocess, coryneform bacteria are engineered to have an optimum metabolic pathway for aparticular target chemical. The cells are grown at a large
scale and packed to very high densities in a reactor in order to maximize the catalyst/volume ratio at the production stage. Sugars are subsequently added to initiate bioconversion as a substrate under oxygen deprivation; thishas the effect to cease the growth of these bacteria while
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Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology Groupkeeping them metabolically active (Figure 3). As a result,
the target chemical is produced by growth-arrested cells,with a larger share of the substrate being converted into
useful products without any additional natural rich medium or external energy. The key to achieving high efficiency and high productivity is the effective 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 to those of chemical processes.

arcane contain only hexoses. Therefore, for achieving ahigh yield per substrate, it is essential for microorganisms used in biofuel processes to exhibit the ability to simultaneously utilize both pentoses and hexoses. We introduced several genes involved in the catabolism of C5
sugars into coryneform bacteria, and applied the resultant recombinant bacteria to our bioprocess. These modifications allowed for efficient utilization of cellulosic
materials, and faster conversions thus became possible
since we could achieve, without any lag phase, the simultaneous utilization of all the sugars present in the reaction medium.
4-3. Tolerance against fermentation inhibitors
Fermentation inhibitors include phenols, furans andorganic acids such as acetic acid. These compounds are
by-products formed during the pre-treatment of lignocellulosic biomass. As exemplified by hydrothermal
treatment, such treatments are typically very harsh but
are necessary to break the recalcitrant biomass fiber andthereby facilitate enzymatic hydrolysis. Their strong inhibition has been known for many years to be a cause of

4-2. Simultaneous utilization of C6 and C5 sugars
Lignocellulosic biomass hydrolysates constitute complex mixtures of different sugars. They composes of pentoses (C5 sugars such as xylose and arabinose) derived
from hemicelluloses, as well as hexoses (C6 sugars suchas glucose and fructose). By comparison, starch fromfood grains such as corn, wheat etc. and sugar from sug-

Figure 3 Comparison of RITE Bioprocess with conventional bioprocess

Figure 4 Expanding usage of mixed sugars from non-food biomass

15

R&D Activities

Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology Group

concern to the biofuel manufacturer and they represent
one of the biggest problems associated with conventional
bioprocesses. However, we demonstrated that these fermentation inhibitors essentially do not affect the RITE
Bioprocess, since their action is to inhibit cell growth
while our process separates the cell growth phase fromthe product production phase. Furthermore, we extensively demonstrated that the main metabolic pathways
necessary to produce compounds of interest on the one
hand remain active under the conditions of the growtharrested RITE Bioprocess and on the other hand are virtually not affected by the presence of fermentation inhibitors in quantities that would hinder conventional
processes.

as amino acids manufactured by aerobic fermentation.
Because aerobic processes require air compressors andagitation motors to ventilate and mix liquids, respectively, aerobic processes involve additional equipment andexpensive operational cost. We have already begun to develop production processes for several amino acids byusing the RITE Bioprocess.
4-5. Development for industrialization
In 2009, we established two technology research associations with private companies to accelerate our research and development, in addition to collaborative
work for a cellulosic ethanol production system (seeRITE Today 2008~2010). The association has corporate
status and joint research with private companies andpublic R&D agencies is now possible. Successful collaborative work is going on under the auspices of "Green
Phenol Technology Research Association" and "Bio-Butanol Technology Research Association". For further acceleration towards industrialization, we established“Green Earth Institute Co., Ltd.” last year to provide biofuels and green chemicals by using our RITE Bioprocess(see Topics). The concept for its establishment is the industrialization of our RITE-Bioprocess to contribute to
the preservation of global environment by employing efforts against global warming and the realization of a postfossil resources sustainable society.

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- and D-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.
Although the economical production of aromaticcompounds has been a challenge when using conventional fermentation technologies, their production by industrial biotechnology is still an important aim sincethese materials, once made from sustainable raw materials such as biomass, are expected by leading Japanesecompanies 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

5. Ending remark
Intense competition in the development of technology which contributes towards global warming prevention
and environmental protection at a global scale will persist into the future. To achieve early establishment ofcommercial-scale biorefinery, we hope to continue ourcollaborative research development with domestic as well
as overseas companies to further expand the RITE Bioprocess platform technology.

Figure 5 Production pathways of coryneform bacteria designed for acyclic chemicals and biofuels16

R&D Activities

Chemical Research Group

Chemical Research Group
Challenges for Advanced Industrializing CO2 Capture Technologies
cess, baroplastics that have low temperature flow underhigh 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.

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.
Our chemical research group studies various CO2
capture technologies, with a special focus on chemical
absorption and membrane separation methods.
We developed a COCS project aimed at reducing theCO2 capture cost in ironworks by chemical absorption, in
which we developed an innovative chemical absorbent
that reduced the CO2 capture cost for flue gas to 3000
JPY/ton-CO2. We are continuing to develop a chemical
absorbent to further reduce this CO2 capture cost to 2000
JPY/ton-CO2 (by 2015).
Moreover, we have developed an excellent CO2 absorbent that is effective for pressurized gas, and are planningto put this into practical use.
By developing molecular gate type membrane technologies to capture CO2 selectively from H2-containingpressurized 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 have discovered that new types of dendrimer
polymers have excellent properties for separating CO2
from H2 gas mixtures. RITE and three private companies
have established the technology research association, developing membrane modules and separation systems forthe practical application.
For CO2 capture technology using adsorption processes, we have developed new solid adsorbents that do
not lose CO2 capture efficiency even in the presence ofwater vapor. We are planning to develop a low-cost CO2
capture process by eliminating the requirement for a dehumidification tower.
Above all, we have begun to develop new solid sorbents, onto which amine is immobilized, for the purposeof developing low-cost CO2 capture technology.
As mentioned above, we are promoting innovative
CO2 capture technologies, which lay the foundations forthe 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 thatcombines membranes with a chemical absorption pro-

2. Development of CO 2 capture technology bychemical absorption systems
CO2 capture by chemical absorption is a prospective
technology for separating CO2 from a CO2-containing
gas by means of thermal dissociation of CO2 that is chemically absorbed in an amine-based solution. This is suitable for CO2 separation from the normal pressure gas
generated on an industrial scale. Our objective is to develop new, efficient absorbents that will decrease the CO2
separation cost, which is the main concern for chemical
absorption systems.
We planned and coordinated, from FY2004 until
FY2008, a "Cost-saving CO2 Capture System" (COCS)
project to capture and separate CO2 from ironworks blast
furnace gas at half the previous cost of a chemical absorption system, and achieved this goal (Figure 1).

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

In this project, we developed various types of efficient
new absorbent. The CO2 capture energy consumption of
the absorbents developed in this project is drastically reduced in comparison with that of MEA (monoethanolamine) used as a standard.
These outcomes were succeeded by another project,“CO2 Ultimate Reduction in Steelmaking Process by Innovative Technology for Cool Earth 50” (COURSE50,
five years from FY2008), aiming at CO2 capture from theironworks process gas.
We are now endeavoring to find more efficiently new
absorbents (CO2 capture energy: 2.0 GJ/ton-CO2) which

17

R&D Activities

Chemical Research Group

Figure 4 Evaluation of performance(thermal energy consumption)

Figure 2 Development of new absorbents

mulated research experience and found amine-based absorbents with excellent CO2 absorption and dissociation
performances. We will propose a chemical absorption
system using these amine absorbents as a new technology for CO2 capture from gases under high pressure.
In addition, we are interested in process developmentof chemical absorption for CO2 capture. A new evaluation technique for solvent selection is required to accelerate commercialization of amine solvent methods. Processsimulation for advanced amine solvents must be established and improved so as to more accurately estimate
the performance of scaled-up processes. The environmental impact of amine-based absorbents is also important in process development and has currently become acrucial issue. In 2010, a pilot plant operation of a RITEdeveloped solvent at a 10t/d-scale facility was conductedin order to evaluate solvent performance and to gather
process data for the process simulation.

are appropriate for the COURSE50 project(Figure 2).
In order to minimize CO2 capture energy, it is necessary to minimize heat of chemical reaction in CO2 capture and also necessary to maximize CO2 capture rate inorder to minimize plant size. In general, heat of reaction
and reaction rate is trade-off, however the developmentof compatible absorbents is required.
Therefore, we are developing more efficiently newamine absorbents taking advantage of latest computational chemistry and synthetic chemistry with Nippon
Steel Corporation and The University of Tokyo, and are
evaluating the test results with 1t and 30t-CO2/day scale
pilot equipment(Figure 3) using BFG (blast furnace gas)in cooperation with Nippon Steel Engineering Co., Ltd.

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 “CoolEarth 50”. One promising means of reducing CO2 emission is the development of an integrated coal gasification
combined cycle with CO2 capture & storage (IGCCCCS). In the IGCC-CCS process, CO2 separation membranes will play an important role for reducing CO2 capture costs. Estimates indicate that the CO2 capture costfrom a pressurized gas stream using a membrane 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. Figure 5 shows the basic
outline of the CO2 molecular gate function. The pathway
for gas molecules is occupied solely by CO2, which acts asa gate to block the passage of other gases. Consequently,
the amount of N2 or H2 permeating to the other side of
the membrane is greatly limited and high concentrationsof CO2 can be obtained. A RITE’s dendrimer, which possesses excellent CO2/H2 selectivity, is fixed stably in a

Figure 3 Snapshots of test equipment

To date, we successfully developed a new chemical
absorbent (solvent 2) superior to the previously developed chemical absorbent (solvent 1) (Figure 4). The thermal energy consumption of solvent 2 is 2.5GJ/t-CO2, andfurthermore, ca. 0.1GJ/t-CO2 improvement is expected
at actual equipment.
From FY2007 to FY2009, we worked on the researchand development of appropriate absorbents for CO2 capture under high-pressure conditions, based on our accu-

18

R&D Activities

Chemical Research Groupcross-linked polymer matrix to form the separation
membrane. Figure 6 shows a conceptual diagram of amaterial incorporating PAMAM dendrimer and its CO2/
H2 separation properties, along with the data reported in
Science and other high-impact journals. Our PAMAM
dendrimer/polymer hybrid material shows the world’s
largest CO2/H2 selectivity of 30 or more.

Based on these materials, modification of membranematerials, 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 Engineering Co., Ltd. established Molecular Gate Membrane module Technology Research
Association, and membranes, membrane modules andseparation systems are being developed(Figure 7).
In developing this CO2 molecular gate membrane,
RITE conducted joint research with many foreign partners such as the US Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) in a recognizedproject for the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum(CSLF)*, the University of Texas at Austin and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
* Ministerial-level international climate change initiative that is
focused on the development of improved cost-effective technologies for the separation and capture of carbon dioxide (CO2) for
its transport and long-term safe storage.

Figure 5 Conceptual diagram of the molecular gate membrane

4. Development of an energy-saving CO 2-PSA
process using hydrophobic adsorbents
Novel hydrophobic adsorbents have been proposed
as CO2 adsorbents for the separation of CO2 from highpressure gas. CO2 adsorption capacities of 13X zeolite
and new synthetic adsorbents are shown in Figure 8.
It has been confirmed that the adsorbent synthesizedin our study adsorbed considerable amounts of CO2 athigh pressure. It was also confirmed that they adsorbed
CO2 even in the presence of water vapor. From CO2 separation experiments using CO2-H2 mixed gas flows, it was
confirmed that the new adsorbent was effective for separating CO2 from the gas flow in the presence of water
vapor. Evaluation of the process cost is now under way.
Figure 6 Dendrimer incorporated membrane and its performance

Figure 8 Development of an energy-saving CO2-PSA process

Figure 7 Development of membrane modules in cooperation
with private companies

19

R&D Activities

Chemical Research Group

5. Advanced stage of technology development on
CO2 capture by amine-based absorbents

6. Advanc e d C O 2 /H 2 s e p ar ati on mater i a ls
incorporating active functional agents (GCEP)

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 on energy-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 using liquidamine solvents.
With respect to solid sorbents, amines can be immobilized onto a support or encapsulated within a porous
substrate (Figure 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. RITE investigates novel solid
sorbents using RITE-developed solvents through cooperative R&D activities with NETL, from which major research on the solid sorbents has already been presented.
It has been confirmed that a new RITE-solvent based solid sorbent synthesized in our study desorbed CO2 at lower temperature compared with traditional solid amine
sorbent. Evaluation for the practical use is now under
way.

RITE has conducted developmental work entitled“Sub-nano structure controlled materials: developmentof innovative gas separation membranes” as part of the
Global Climate and Energy Project (GCEP) of Stanford
University, USA.
Under the theme of advanced CO2/H2 separation materials incorporating active functional agents, supercritical and subcritical CO2 acts as a structure-directing agent
for CO2 affinity materials. Figure 10 shows a schematic of
the concept. Excellent CO2 separation membranes will
be obtained by strict morphology regulation at the molecular scale. In the figure, supercritical CO2 regulates
the CO2 affinity membrane materials into a morphologythat is preferential for CO2 permeation (State A). Afterremoving supercritical CO2, the preferential morphology
will be maintained (State B) to form an excellent CO2
separation membrane.

Figure 10 Concept of super critical (sc) CO2 structure directing method

Figure 9 Development of novel solid sorbents

20

R&D Activities

CO2 Storage Research Group

CO2 Storage Research Group

Development of CO2 Geological Storage Technology for Practical Use
the past, RITE further clarifies CO2 storage mechanismand simulates long-term CO2 behavior with increased accuracy.

1. CO2 geological storage projectCO2 geological storage is a technology to safely contain CO2 into deep underground formations to preventthe greenhouse gas from being released into the atmosphere. The technology involves: enhancing oil recovery(EOR) by injecting CO2 into oil reservoirs; enhancing
coal-bed methane recovery (ECBM) by injecting CO2
into coal seams; geological sequestration of CO2 into depleted gas fields; and storing CO2 in deep saline aquifer.
RITE has been working on storing CO2 in deep saline
aquifer, where caprock (mudstone) formation overlies
sandstone formation and blocks migration of gases andfluids with high sealing properties, so that CO2 is safely
stored underground for years.

injection from ground facility

injection well

separation / capture(3) CO2 migration analysis from reservoir
CO2 migrates from reservoir mainly through faults
and abandoned wells after well or site closure. RITE studies methods of modeling CO2 migration and develops
techniques to monitor and assess environmental impacts
on ocean.
RITE applies the above-stated technologies to a proposed CCS large-scale demonstration project and helps
accelerate CCS projects in Japan. The CO2 Storage Research Group achieved the following results in FY2011:- CO2 behavior analysis in Nagaoka site
From July 2003 to January 2005, RITE injected about
10,400 tons of CO2 into saline aquifer 1,000 meters below
the ground surface of Iwanohara field, Nagaoka, Niigata
Prefecture (owned by Inpex Corporation). To grasp CO2
behavior after the injection, RITE keeps taking field data
regularly by using the wells there. In FY2011, RITE conducted physical well logging, VSP measurement, andanalysis of fluids samples of reservoir to study post-injection CO2 status. Based on the data obtained, RITE carried out history matching and improved long-term
simulation analysis of CO2 behavior. Among many demonstration projects worldwide, only Nagaoka projectcontinues monitoring CO2 behavior even after the end of
injection, thus the observed monitoring results have

injection from offshore platformpipelinetransportation

cap rockreservoir

Figure 1 Concept of CO2 geological storage

RITE has been proceeding with basic research on
geological characterization (geological modeling), CO2
behavior analysis (monitoring and long-term predictionof CO2 behavior) and CO2 migration analysis (safety assessment):(1) Developing techniques of geological characterization
Based on results of cross-hole seismic tomography,
physical loggings, physical property measurements ofcore samples, etc. obtained in the field of Nagaoka demonstration site, RITE closely studies reservoir structures
to design better geological modeling that reflects Japanspecific complex geology, such as sand-and-clay formations and gravel formation, and develops methods forgeological characterization of reservoir.
(2) CO2 behavior analysis in reservoir
Through a thorough analysis of physical logging dataobtained in Nagaoka demonstration site this year and in

Figure 2 Detection of dissolved CO2 by resistivity logging(Observation well OB-2)

21

R&D Activities

CO2 Storage Research Groupwaters for a short time to demonstrate the performanceand effectiveness in FY 2010. In FY 2011, RITE further
added a 24-module (1,200 meters) OBC to the systemand started long-term consecutive observation offshoreof Hiratsuka coast in Sagami Bay. In view of applicationof the system to large-scale CCS demonstration projects,
RITE plans to proceed with development of CO2 monitoring techniques using the permanent OBC.

Figure 3 CO2 concentrations dissolved into formation water

drawn great attention from the world.
- Visualization of CO2 flow using X-ray CT scanner
RITE introduced a state-of-the-art X-ray CT scanner
to understand CO2 behavior injected into porous sandstone formations of saline aquifer and successfully visualized supercritical CO2 flows in the pore-space structureof the sandstone. RITE plans to characterize rock porosity and CO2 saturation in terms of seismic wave velocity
and to further advance CO2 monitoring technology.

Figure 5 Concept of permanent OBC observation system

Figure 6 Laying permanent OBC observation system- Research on CO2 injection impact on geological formation
To observe microseismicities caused by CO2 injection, RITE installed six 3-C geophones in a CO2 injection
site (Cranfield oil field, Mississippi) of the US carbon sequestration regional partnership under collaboration
with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the
Bureau of Economic Geology of the University of Texas.
Observation started in December, 2011. RITE will develop techniques of observing microseismicities to ensure
safe injection of CO2 at the proposed large-scale CCS
demonstration project and commercial implementation.

Figure 4 Visualized images of CO2 flow in sandstone (left: CT
images, right: CT images of injected CO2 (in red))- Long-term field observation by permanent OBC
As a technique to monitor offshore CO2 geologicalstorage, RITE adopted a permanent OBC (Ocean Bottom
Cable) system and has been evaluating the system since
FY2007. First a 16-module (800 meters) OBC was tested
in inland water reservoir to evaluate its performance, andthen a 24-module (1,200 meters) OBC was tested in real

- Environmental impact assessment
Under the project to develop a safety assessment technique of CO2 migration, RITE selected a baseline model
for CO2 migration simulation in marine sediment andstarted modeling of CO2 migration. Under the project todevelop a marine environment monitoring, RITE has

22

R&D Activities

CO2 Storage Research Group

studied a technique using microbial activity for CO2
monitoring. Under the project to develop a technique toassess CO2 impact on benthic ecosystem, RITE started
building a database of CO2 impact on benthic organisms
and collecting information on research and developmentin the UK. RITE is considering: studying survey methods
for physical, chemical and biological baselines of marine
environment; building a CO2 behavior prediction modelsuch that CO2 takes potential migration paths to reachthe bottom of ocean and disperse in the ocean water; anddeveloping methods for evaluating CO2 impact on benthic ecosystem, in future.

Along with the high economic growth in recent years,
China increased CO2 emissions year by year and became
the world’s largest emitter in 2007. Japan ranks the fifthlargest CO2 emitter in the world. Therefore, CCS-EOR
joint study of Japan and China has a significant meaningfrom the perspective of preventing global warming.
RITE has deepened knowledge sharing on technologies with China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC)
through CCS-EOR workshops (in 2009 and 2010), Saving Energy, Environmental Protection, GHG reduction
Workshop (2011) co-organized by RITE and CNPC, andmutual visits to CCS/CCS-EOR related facilities and sites
in Japan and China. The technology knowledge sharing
resulted in three selected themes for Japan-China collaboration: (1) research on entire CCS-EOR (CCUS) system, (2) research on reservoir characterization techniques, (3) research on microbial restoration of methane
deposits with subsurface CO2 sequestration into depleted oil fields. RITE and CNPC signed “the Memorandumof Understanding on Japan-China collaboration themes”
in Beijing on September 28, 2011.
In 2012, the collaboration with CNPC will be focusedon “research on reservoir characterization techniques”,
in which applicability of RITE’s reservoir characterization techniques to oil fields in China is scheduled to bestudied in detail.

2. Japan-China CCS-EOR project
CCS is a technology to capture and store CO2 emissions from fossil fuels burning, which is believed to remain essential countermeasures against global warming
before 2100. CCS-EOR combining CCS with EOR (Enhanced Oil Recovery) makes profits through the operation so that it is expected to be deployed much earlier. In
the United States, CCS-EOR utilizing natural CO2 hasbeen already implemented in a scale of 60 million tons
per year. It is highly expected that the CCS-EOR will
move forward to utilizing CO2 emissions from coal-fired
power station in the near future. Its emissions are comparatively large in generating electricity of a specific energy basic unit (1kWh).

Figure 7 CCS-EOR Overview

Figure 8 Signing ceremony for MoU on CCS-EOR Japan-China
collaboration themes23501*$4
GHGT-11 to be held in Kyoto in November 2012
Office for GHGT-11

Research Institute of Innovative
Technology for the Earth

GHGT-11

Dates: Sunday 18th – Thursday 22nd November, 2012
(Venue: Kyoto International Conference Center and hotels in Kyoto city)
Hosted by: RITE & IEAGHG

Signing of the Memorandum of Understanding for GHGT-11
Left: Yoichi Kaya (President, RITE), Right: John Gale (General Manager, IEAGHG)

RITE will host the 11 th International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Control
Technologies (GHGT-11) which will be held in Kyoto in November 2012. The GHGT
conferences are international conferences guarded by IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D
Programme (IEAGHG), which was established as an Implementing Agreement underthe International Energy Agency, and of which RITE is a member to represent Japan. The
GHGT conferences are held every two years rotating between North America, Europe andAsia. GHGT-11 will mark the 20th year since the first conference of the series (then called
ICCDR-1) was held, and the first event of the series held in Japan in the ten years.
<<Programme Overview (Preliminary)>>

The GHGT conference series has established itself as the principal international
conference on greenhouse gas mitigation technologies especially on
CCS (CO 2 Capture and Storage). Abstracts for GHGT-11 submitted
during the period from the 26th September 2011 to the 15th February
2012 in response to the Call for Papers are reviewed by the ProgrammeCommittee of the conference, and presentations will be made at thetechnical sessions of the conference, which consist of oral sessions (around
6 parallel sessions) and poster sessions.
24

501*$4
<<GHGT-11: Technical Themes>>

Technical sessions (oral and poster sessions) of GHGT-11 will serve as platforms todiscuss the technical themes related to CCS as show n above. On the other hand keynote
speeches and panel discussions at GHGT-11 will take up wider variety of topics likeenergy policies, solutions for commercializing advanced technologies and international
cooperation, and promote Japan’s leading edge environmental technologies to the world.

Keynote Speech (GHGT-10)

Poster session (GHGT-10)

Online conference registration will open on the 23rd April and early bird discount will
be available until the 23rd July (JST). GHGT-10 held in Netherlands in 2010 was attended
by some 1,600 delegates, but only 200 of them were from Asia. In order to increase Asia’spresence at GHGT-11 to be held in Japan, we would like to invite all of you working on CCS
and other global warming prevention measures to attend the conference to enhance global
development of greenhouse gas control technologies.
Online registration, conference programme will be available at www.ghgt.info
Early Bird Registration
Late Registration

23rd April – 23rd July 2012 (JST)24th July 2012 – 15th November 2012 (JST)25

501*$4
Symposium on Innovative Environmental Technologies-The Realization of Low Carbon and Green InnovationPlanning, Survey, and Public Relations GroupThe symposium entitled “Symposium on Innovative Environmental Technologies -The
Realization of Low Carbon and Green Innovation-” was held on December 1, 2011 at Nadao
Hall in Tokyo.
The symposium was organized by RITE, and supported by Minister of Economy, Tradeand Industry(METI), The Chemical Society of Japan, The Society of Chemical Engineers,
Japan, Japan Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Agrochemistry, Japan Society of Energy and Resources, The Japan Institute of Energy, IEAGHG.
We had 348 attendances which emphasizes the great interest in our activities, including
participants from METI, Ministry of the Environment and various fields of industry andacademia.
The symposium started with Dr. Kenji Yamaji’s lecture and then the experts from eachresearch group reported the outcome and outlook of their researches such as scenarios for
mitigation global warming, biorefinery technology and CCS technology, with the current
trends of the world and Japanese situation. Vigorous questioning and opinions were expressedby the audience.
We received questionnaires from 194 attendances. According to the results, 171 people
said that they had been satisfied with the lectures.

ALPS International Symposium 2011
Systems Analysis GroupThe ALPS International Symposium 2011 was held at Nadao Hall in Tokyo on February
9th, 2011. This symposium was hosted by the Research Institute of Innovative Technology
for the Earth (RITE) with support from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan(METI).
We are honored to have a variety of leading experts including Prof. Nabojsa Nakicenovic
and Dr. Markas Amann from the International Institute Applied Systems Analysis, Dr. Mark
Levine from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Dr. Leon E. Clarke from the PacificNorthwest National Laboratory, Kejun Jiang from Energy Research Institute National Development and Reform Commission, Kenji Yamaji,a director general of RITE, and Keigo Akimotofrom RITE. The symposium was titled “theFrontiers of Scenarios for Climate Change Research and Assessment.” We discussed scenario
analyses based on a long-term and multiple perspectives.
We had an attendance of 230 people from industries, ministries and universities. Their active discussion motivated us to dedicate further
efforts to our research and development.

26

501*$4
Establishment of Green Earth Institute Co., Ltd. toward the industrialization of biorefinery
Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology GroupThe biorefinery is greatly expected to enable novel technologies or industries that can produce chemicals and liquid fuels from renewable nonfood biomass that eschew competition with food resources. Green Earth
Institute Co., Ltd. was established to provide biofuels and green chemicals by using a highly efficient process called the RITE Bioprocess which
was developed by RITE.
The concept of the establishment is the industrialization of our RITEBioprocess to contribute to the conservation of global environment through efforts against global warming andhence the realization of sustainable post-fossil resources
society. G.E.I. Co., Ltd. hopes to engage in global businessas a leading company in the biorefinery sector.
Corporate name: Green Earth Institute Co., Ltd.
Founded: 1st. September 2011
Address: University of Tokyo UCR Plaza 6F,
7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, JAPAN

Many visitors attended our seminar and exhibition booth at BioJapan2011 (World Business Forum)
Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology Group

The World Business Forum organized by the BioJapan Organizing Committee and Nikkei
Business Publications Inc. was held at Pacifico Yokohama from 5th to 7th October 2011. This
time RITE hosted the forum as a sponsor organization. RITE Director, Dr. Hideaki Yukawa,moderated the seminar on “Green Innovation” following last year.
Our group exhibited the highly efficient bio-conversion technology “RITE-Bioprocess”
along with posters and video presentations, which allowed detailed introduction of our activities, and our corporate strategic alliance partners joined the exhibition, with their panels
displaying products which were produced using our RITE-Bioprocess. We also introduced
our new business arm, the Green Earth Institute Co., Ltd. established this September. We
thank very much all those who visited of our booth.

Mr. Takayuki Ueda, front,
Director-General, Manufacturing
Industries Bureau of Minister of
Economy, Trade and Industry, stopped
by our booth.

RITE Booth27

501*$4
2011 fellowship award from The Society for Industrial Microbiology
Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology GroupRITE Director H. Yukawa was awarded the 2011 fellowship award from The Society for
Industrial Microbiology (SIM). Founded in 1949 in NY, SIM is an international association
dedicated to the advancement of applied microbiology essential for industrial biotechnology.
In SIM Meetings, advancement of microbiological sciences which apply to industrial products, biotechnology, materials and processes, are presented and discussed. Global chemical
corporations and prominent universities are also on the member list of the association.
This prize was started in 1985 and is given to individuals for their contributions to industrial microbiology. Dr. H. Yukawa is the first Japanese recipient of this prestigious award.

SIM President Badal Saha and Dr. H. Yukawa

28

501*$4
Symposium for Innovative CO2 Membrane Separation Technology“Recent trend of membrane separation technology contributing to the prevention of global warming”
Chemical Research GroupOn November 4th 2011, Symposium for Innovative CO2 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 andIndustry (METI) (supported by Japan CCS Co., Ltd.(JCCS), Global CCS Institute, Japan Association for Chemical Innovation (JACI), The Membrane Society of Japan, and The Societyof Chemical Engineers, Japan(SCEJ)). 170 related persons attended from companies, universities, research institutes and government agencies.
Molecular Gate Membrane Module Technology Research Association was established by
Kuraray Co., Ltd., Nitto Denko Corporation, Nippon Steel Engineering Co., Ltd., and RITE
in order to commercialize a molecular 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 CO2 separation
membrane technologies, which the Association have been developing, and the overview of
its research and development in overseas, and then widely provide people interested in CO2
separation with the latest information to help them understand R&D activities for CO2 reduction required for both public and private sectors.
The speakers ware Yoichi Kaya, Senior Vice President of RITE at that time “Response to
Global Warming”; Shin-ichi Nakao, Professor of Kogakuin University “Membrane Separation Technology Status and Future Outlook”; Benny D. Freeman, Professor of University ofTexas “Latest trend of membrane technologies in North America”; Tomokazu Ise, Supervisorof Kurashiki lab of the Technology Research Association, “Report of Investigation into Membrane Technologies in Overseas”; Shingo Kazama, Senior Managing Director of the Technology Research Association, “Next-Generation Membrane Module”; Hiroshi Iwahori, Senior
Consultant of Ibaraki lab of the Technology Research Association, “Deployment of the Membranes to the World Market”.
Membrane modules and posters, etc. were displayed by the Association.
We conducted a survey of visitors. As a result, from 69% of respondents, we received agood response.

29501*$4
CCS Workshop-Ensuring safety toward public acceptanceCO2 Storage research Group

CCS Workshop -Ensuring safety toward public acceptance- was successfully held at
Bellesalle Shiodome, Chuo-ku, Tokyo on January 18th, 2012. The workshop was co-organizedby the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and RITE and supported by the
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI), the Global CCS Institute (GCCSI), theIEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme (IEAGHG), the Japan Society of Energy and Resources (JSER) and Japan CCS Co., Ltd. (JCCS). We had 386 attendees from governmentalorganizations, various industries, universities, and research institutes at home and abroad.
Kenji Yamaji, Director General, RITE and John Gale, General Manager, IEAGHG, UK
gave keynote speeches on “Role of CCS in Sustainable Energy Future” and “Challenges forpractical use and commercialization of CCS”, respectively. Other talks were given by John
Bradshaw, CEO, CO2 Geological Storage Solutions (CGSS),Australia on “Geological storageof CO2: “Practicalities” - issues, risks and uncertainties associated with site selection”; Sally
Benson, GCEP Director, Stanford University, USA on “Monitoring Performance of Geological Storage Projects”; Ziqiu Xue, Associate Chief Researcher, CO2 Storage Research Group,
RITE on “Microseismic Monitoring at the CCS fields”; and Peta Ashworth, Leader of Science
into Society Group (SISG), CSIRO, Australia, on “Stakeholder engagement for successful
CCS development: Considerations and lessons learned”. Moderator was Kozo Sato, Professor, the Frontier Research Center for Energy and Resources Graduate School of Engineering,
the University of Tokyo.
Alongside the workshop, RITE held poster sessions by RITE researchers. The attendees
had fruitful discussions on various issues such as stakeholder engagement or public acceptance.

30

2011 Paper, Presentation and Publication

Systems Analysis Group

Systems Analysis Group

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2011 Paper, Presentation and Publication

Systems Analysis Group

32

2011 Paper, Presentation and Publication

Systems Analysis Group

33

2011 Paper, Presentation and Publication

Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology Group

Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology Group

34

2011 Paper, Presentation and Publication

Chemical Rsearch Group

Chemical Rsearch Group

35

2011 Paper, Presentation and Publication

CO2 Storage Research Group

CO2 Storage Rsearch Group

36

2011 Paper, Presentation and Publication

CO2 Storage Research Group37

Notes38

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