Japan-headed Asahi Kasei Corporation (Asahi Kasei), a global developer of fiber products, chemicals, and electronics-related materials, and compatriot industry and trading conglomerate Mitsui & Co., Ltd (Mitsui) have announced that they will establish a supply and procurement scheme for bio-methanol produced in the United States. Through this scheme, Asahi Kasei plans to use the bio-methanol procured from Mitsui to produce in Japan engineering plastics with a lower carbon footprint than existing products.
Today, companies in Japan are increasingly stepping up their efforts to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions throughout their product supply chains, including raw material-derived GHG – Scope 3 emissions – in order to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, as advocated by the Japanese government.
In this context, Asahi Kasei is working to reduce GHG emissions by manufacturing various engineering plastics, such as “TENAC”, a polyoxymethylene (POM) resin aka polyacetal using biomass-based materials with low GHG emissions.
Certified green
Asahi Kasei and Mitsui are working together to find solutions to various issues related to material procurement.
In the United States (US), Mitsui procures biomethane (aka renewable natural gas – RNG) generated from municipal waste landfills. Applying a mass balance approach, the RNG is used in the production of bio-methanol at Fairway Methanol, a local joint venture company.
Asahi Kasei and Mitsui have been awarded the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC PLUS certification) for their supply chains in order to prove the raw material’s sustainability features for use in final products.
This will enable Asahi Kasei to procure bio-methanol manufactured by Mitsui and to sell various types of engineering plastics which contain the correct amount of biomass raw material allocated under the mass balance approach.
