After Gutenberg

The diversion of biodegradable waste into anaerobic digestion and / or capture of bio-gas is advantageous from an overall environmental impact and in amount of greenhouse-gas emissions. CNG-powered vehicles are more capable of meeting increasingly stricter emissions regulations yet suffer from low range per refueling. Nonetheless, more fleet managers are considering biogas as an alternative fuel because of the scarcity / increasing price of fossil fuels.

Bio-gas, a.k.a., renewable natural gas, is a versatile energy source. Anaerobic digestion is a way to convert waste to energy.

The Nikkei via Green Car Congress reports that “Bioenergy Corp., a Tokyo-based food-waste processing company, will start using biogas produced by the fermentation of food waste as a fuel in vehicles that collect the waste by the end of March 2009.”

Bioenergy is a joint venture between Ichikawa Kankyo Engineering Co., Kaname Kogyo Co. and San-R (3R, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation), formed to produce power from food waste. [They] plan to spend about 400 million yen [US$3.9 million] in fiscal 2008 and 2009 to install at its plant the necessary facilities capable of filling about 40-50 cars a day with biogas.

Bioenergy will use adsoprtion technology from the newly formed Biogas Net Japan to refine and clean the digester gas to automotive quality.

As previously noted, ANG technology allows storing an equivalent amount of natural gas under lower pressures than CNG, vastly reducing the expense associated with refueling expenses and allowing for a more efficient use of the vehicle’s space.