Honda Motor Co., Ltd. will develop a new research and development facility to bring about the creation and the practical use of bioethnol technology made from cellulosic materials by using the leaves and stems of plants.
The car company is making continuous studies on the technologies of bioethanol production in collaboration with Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth or RITE. The research processes began in 2006, with experiments done in a facility of Honda, the Fundamental Technology Research Center since April 2007.
The cellulosic ethanol process of the RITE-Honda partnership makes use of genetically modified Corynebacterium glutamicum to be able to produce ethanol out of combined sugars. Last November 2008, RITE-Honda had won the Grand Prize of the 18th Nikkei Global Environment Technology Award for their outstanding contribution to biofuel research industry.
