Establishing an environmentallyfriendly Sound Material-Cycle
Society in which the wholecommunity work in unison
Background and Reason for the Project

Yubetsu Town

2. Supplying electricity to evacuation shelters in theIn dairy farming which is the key industry of this town,

case of disasters by utilising energy generated

the number of dairy farmers with a large herd sizeby the plant

farm has been on the rise due to the modern

3. Achieving a considerate plant design to themechanization and division of labour. Inappropriate

environment as the town is located in thedisposal of livestock excrement due to labour

vicinity of Lake Saroma and the Sea of Okhotsk

shortage of dairy farmers has become an issue, and4. Use of digestion effluent for the preservation of

the foul odour from the piled-up manure and the spillsea plants and for the production of field cropsof the manure to rivers due to heavy rain havewith the collaboration of crop farming and dairy

become problematic. Therefore, a survey tofarming

understand the possibility of installing biogas plants

5. Branding of cultivated crops such as fruits

using livestock excrement as a raw material wasproduced by the waste heat generated from theimplemented for every household in the town forplant

two years between 2018 and 2019, with the aim of
conducting the appropriate disposal of livestock
excrement.
The results of the survey showed 23 dairy farms outof 120 wished for a centralized biogas plant, and 6 ofthem wished to employ an individual biogas plant.
Following these results, in order to aim to establish

an environmentally friendly Sound Material-Cycle
Society on which the whole community work inunison, the Yubetsu Town Biomass Industrial City
Scheme was established in 2020 in Yubetsu Town. As
its first step, Okhotsk Yubetsu Biogas Inc., a special

Image of the use of digestion effluent with a collaboration ofpurpose company (SPC) was founded in November

crop farming and dairy farming

2021 for the installation of a concentrated biogas

Project Outline

plant to utilise the renewable energy.

Company name: Okhotsk Yubetsu Biogas Inc.

Project Aims

Members: JA Yubetsu-cho (JA: Japan Agricultural

1. Appropriate disposal of livestock excrement andCooperative), Yubetsu Town, JA Enyu, Yubetsu

labour burden reduction for dairy farmers

Fishery
1

Cooperative,Biomass

Research&Development,Co.,Ltd.,

Biostock

Inc.,

23

participant farms
Construction details: A set of centralized biogas plantfacilities (A size equivalent to process 3,400 cattle)
Throughput per day: 290 tonnes
Okhotsk Yubetsu Biogas Inc. is going to researchbusiness profitability and to apply for the subsidized
company and the Feed-in Tariff (FIT) scheme forrenewable energy. Tests and research to utilise
renewableenergyimplementation,

will

becollaborating

reviewedwithforrelatedorganisations.

Image of the use of electricity in emergency shelters- The photo is an emergency shelter during a blackout

Results of the Project
1. Approximately 60 per cent of cattle’s excrementin the town would be processed in the biogas
plants including those processed in the existing
individual biogas plants. This would result in aCompletion drawing of the centralized biogas plantlarge reduction of the issues such as odour,- Scheduled to complete in 2025

overfertilisation and river pollution.
2. Provision of electricity generated by the plant toFeatures and Innovations

every single household with the aim of the1. It is a SPC (special purpose company) thatelimination of the use of fossil fuel in the wholeconsists

ofadministration,

agricultural

townorganisations, a fishery organisation and privateinthefuturewouldrealisedecarbonisation.

enterprises. Opinions based on the perspectives

3. It has been confirmed that climate change inof each organisation have been exchanged torecent years has been causing a sharp drop ofachieve the same goal. In particular, we request

sea plants and loss of habitat of fish andthe fishery organisation to check together

seashells. Preserving sea plants by securing thewhether livestock excrement can be processed

habitat of fish and seashells through ocean

appropriately

offertilising with digestion effluent would enable

inventiveness to eliminate a negative impact on

fishery resources to recover, which would not

the fishery system.

be affected by climate change.

andmakethebest2. To realize the establishment of a power supply

4. The plant could be used as one of the energy

base in the case of disasters.

supply bases in the case of disasters.

3. To preserve sea plants and recover fishery

Issues, Problems and Responses

resources by utilising digestion effluent.
4. To brand cultivated crops such as fruits produced

1. Discharge of solid excrement (long straw is usedby protected horticulture under the agriculture-

for litter beds) by most farmers may cause

social welfare collaboration.

problems for plant machines; however, it will be2

resolved by installing crushers made by an

Biomass Research & Development, Co., Ltd.’s website:

overseas manufacturer, which has not beenhttps://biomass-research.net/

used in Japan yet.

Biostock Inc.’s website: https://biostock.co.jp/

2. Although a wide range of digestion effluent
usage has been explored, there are lots ofContact

unclear matters such as the negative effect ofOrganisation in charge: Okhotsk Yubetsu Biogas Inc.

overfertilisation and impact to environment.

(in the JA Yubetsu-cho)Therefore, we will collaborate with specialised

Tel: +81-80-1563-7763

agencies to implement the project.

Email: biogas.yamakawa@gmail.com

3. There is the possibility that a large amount ofexpenses such as installing private electric
power cables to supply electricity to theresidents in the town and the lease of existing
electric power cables in the future. How to fundsuch costs is a great task. Also, legal issues
which need the amendment of the law will
require time.

Future Developments (expected effects andproject vision and issues)
1. We have been planning to implement a
protected horticulture under the agriculturesocial welfare collaboration by utilising waste
heat, and have been conducting a survey
questionnaire for high school students to ask
what they would like to plant.
2. We have been looking into the instalment ofelectric car charging points in the plant site tosupply electricity to emergency shelters byusing electric vehicles. We need to research andreview the number of cars required to cover all
emergency shelters and how to use the cars at
ordinary times.

Reference URLs
Yubetsu Town’s website:
https://www.town.yubetsu.lg.jp/
JA Yubetsu-cho’s website: http://www.ja-yubetsu.org/
JA Enyu’s website: https://www.ja-enyu.com/
Yubetsu Fishery Cooperative’s website:
http://www.hkyubetsu.jf-net.ne.jp/
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