Toyota Tsusho, TEPCO to Invest and Participate in Thailand Biogas CDM Project Companies to purchase carbon credits from recovering methane from tapioca starch factory
2006-02-08
February 8, 2006
Toyota Tsusho Corporation
Tokyo Electric Power Company, Inc.
Toyota Tsusho Corporation (Head Office: Nakamura-ku, Nagoya; President: Junzo Shimizu) and Tokyo Electric Power Company, Inc.(TEPCO; Head Office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President: Tsunehisa Katsumata) agreed to invest and participate in Cassava Waste to Energy Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "CWTE"), an operating company, established by the Clean Energy Development Co. (Thailand) Ltd., of a project to recover methane from a tapioca starch factory in Kalasin Province, Northeast Thailand. Construction of the project facilities began today.
Cassava[*1], the raw material used in tapioca starch production, is widely grown in Thailand, where it is the second most important agricultural product. Tapioca starch factories, however, produce organic wastewater that releases methane[*2]. With no legal restrictions on these emissions, this methane has been released to the atmosphere up to now.
In this project, CWTE will build methane recovery equipments, digesters and other facilities. Methane will be recovered as biogas and sold back to the factory instead of going into the atmosphere. This will enable significant reductions in factory emissions of methane as well as in the amount of heavy oil currently used as boiler fuel for the factory.
Toyota Tsusho and TEPCO, moreover, have reached a basic agreement with the CWTE to purchase carbon credits from this project. In the six years from December 2006 to December 2012, the credits they purchase are expected to reach approximately the equivalent of 600,000 tons CO2 (360,000 tons for Toyota Tsusho, 240,000 tons for TEPCO). The two companies expect that this project will be approved as a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)[*3] project under the Kyoto Protocol.
Toyota Tsusho and TEPCO have previously taken proactive initiatives to reduce greenhouse gases in Japan and abroad through carbon credit purchases and other means, but the new project marks as the companies? first direct investment and participation in a CDM project operator.
Toyota Tsusho considers the environment as one of its main fields of endeavor and believes that promoting its environmental businesses will contribute to building a sustainable society. The company looks forward to greater involvement in recycling and in products designed to reduce global warming and protect the environment.
At TEPCO, taking steps to help prevent global warming has become one of the management's most important priorities. As such, TEPCO continues to promote global warming countermeasures in Japan and abroad. These include electricity supply-side and demand-side initiatives in Japan and the acquisition of carbon credits made available through overseas project cooperation.
press release (original)(155KB)
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