Achievement by 2020: 3) Food Resources and the Environment
The global community is facing climate change, global warming, loss of biodiversity, and problems with resources, water, and energy. Ajinomoto is determined to help solve these interconnected issues through its business activities.
Reducing Greenhouse Gases
Using rice husk as fuel reduces CO2 emissions at an overseas factory
 |
Approximately 10,000 tons of rice husk are stored in 32 silos per month. Thailand is the world's sixth largest rice producer, and Kamphaeng Phet is located at the center of the country's rice region. By utilizing rice husk that would normally be disposed of in large quantities every day, the company is also contributing to waste reduction. |
 |
Rice husk |
Approximately 78% of total CO2 emissions produced by the Ajinomoto Group (2.38 million tons in fiscal 2008) are generated at production plants outside Japan. In Southeast Asia and South America, where strong economic growth is expected, curtailing the expansion of CO2 emissions is particularly important. Taking this into consideration, the Ajinomoto Group installed four biomass boilers at the Kamphaeng Phet Factory of Ajinomoto Co., (Thailand) Ltd. in March 2009. The new boilers use rice husk as biomass fuel1 instead of fossil fuels such as heavy oil. By introducing these boilers, the Ajinomoto Group projects a reduction in its annual CO2 emissions by 4%, or about 100,000 tons.
Rice husk is purchased from rice farmers near the factory. Through the conversion of rice husk to energy using the four boilers, each of which is capable of generating 14.5 tons of steam per hour, the factory produces products such as the umami seasoning AJI-NO-MOTO®. Incinerated ash is also recycled, and the factory is exploring methods to utilize it as fertilizer. By incorporating the biomass boiler system into the bio-cycle2 created by Ajinomoto Co. Inc., the company has realized an amino acid production model based on local resource recycling (see Figure 1).
After gaining approval from both the Japanese and Thai governments, the group applied to the United Nations CDM3 scheme.
The Ajinomoto Group will pursue similar initiatives for locally based fuel conversion in Vietnam and Brazil, where abundant biomass fuel is expected to become available.
1. Biomass fuel: An energy source derived from renewable organic material or animal matter, excluding fossil fuels. Since plants absorb CO2 from the atmosphere during the growing process, burning biomass fuel results in zero net CO2 emissions, and is therefore considered to be carbon neutral.
2. Bio-cycle: A process for recycling resources. In this case, after amino acids are produced from agricultural products using fermentation methods, the remaining material is returned to farmers' fields as nutrient-rich liquid fertilizer.
3. CDM: Clean Development Mechanism, a system that allows emission-reduction (or emission removal) projects in developing countries to earn certified emission reduction (CER) credits, each equivalent to one tonne of CO2. These CER credits can be traded and sold, and used by industrialized countries to meet a part of their emission reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol.
Figure 1: Amino acid production model based on local resource recycling
