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Press Room
Investment in a company involved in research and sale of bio-fuel plant materials
2009-06-10
Toyota Tsusho Corporation (hereinafter the "Company"; Headquarters: Nagoya City; President: Junzo Shimizu) has made a capital investment in JOIL(S) Pte. Ltd. (hereinafter "JOIL"; Headquarters: Singapore; Chairman: Dr. Tan Guong Ching), a company involved in the research and sale of plant materials used to produce bio-fuels. In the future the Company will continue to expand its jatropha bio-fuel business in the Asian, African and Central and South American regions.
1. Background
The Company has been proactive to date in the biodiesel fuel (BDF) industry by participating in the development of more efficient and better quality BDF production processes.
In the BDF industry over half of the costs incurred are that of raw materials and it is often said that a stable, low-cost supply of non-food raw materials is crucial for the long term survival of the industry. For this reason, in the advancement of its BDF business the Company has been trying to secure a bio-fuel material that would achieve such a goal.
2. Jatropha, the bio-fuel plant material
Jatropha is attracting attention as a non-food plant the seeds of which produce a very high quality oil. The tree is easy to manage even outside a plantation environment and as such it has high potential as a low cost, environmentally friendly bio-fuel of the future. To this end, Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory Ltd. (TLL / a research laboratory affiliated with the Singapore Government) has been working to improve jatropha through selective breeding and has developed the tissue culture technology to mass produce an improved variety. JOIL has contracted with TTL for the exclusive rights to implement the patented technology and will soon be rolling out its business of producing and distributing the improved seedlings on a mass scale.
3. Towards the construction of a next generation fuel value chain
Through its capital participation in JOIL, the Company has the opportunity to participate in the development of the necessary plantations and in the sale of the jatropha seedlings. In the future, sales of the jatropha seedlings will be expanded into the Asian, African and Central and Southern American regions. The Company aims to efficiently manage, expand and develop the business so that one day the plantations will become the equivalent of an oil field (i.e. a bio-oil field). Further, with the aim of establishing a stable supply of environmentally friendly next generation BDF fuels, the Company will progress its development efforts to construct a value chain running from the procurement of raw materials right through to the final supply of the bio-fuel.
*Bio-oil field is a registered trademark of Toyota Tsusho Corporation.
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