Japan opens comment period on use of US corn ethanol

Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has started a public comment period on proposed changes that would allow imports of US corn ethanol for use in the production of bio-Ethyl tert-butyl ether, which is commonly used as an oxygenate gasoline additive.

A document filed with the USDA suggested that the new policy would also raise the reduction target for gasoline GHG emissions to 55%, up from the current 50%.

The proposed changes to Japan’s ethanol guidelines impose a default greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions value for US corn ethanol at 43.15 grams of carbon dioxide equivalent per megajoule (gCO2eq/MJ).

The proposed changes also increase the default GHG emission value of Brazilian sugarcane-based ethanol from 32.7 gCO2eq/MJ to 33.61 gCO2eq/MJ.

In addition, the changes would revise the default GHG emission value for gasoline from 81.7 gCO2eq/MJ to 84.11 gCO2eq/MJ.

Under the proposed policy, US corn-based ethanol will be allowed for use in bio-ETBE production when combined with Brazilian sugarcane ethanol, starting from April this year.

The revised GHG emission values for gasoline, Brazilian ethanol and US ethanol would mandate the maximum share of US ethanol by volume allowed in the Japanese market would be 53.73%.

The public comment period is open through January 18.