1. Introduction
There is an urge to develop renewable fuels that could
replace oil. The present study focused on the use of
cellulosic waste (rice straw) as a raw material for fuel
production. Rice is extensively cultivated in Japan, and the
annual total of inedible rice straw and rice hull generated is
estimated at 14 million tons, 70% of which are not being used.
In view of this, the possibility of producing bio-ethanol from
rice straw that is currently being wasted was examined.
Rice straw is generally incorporated into the soil after
harvesting and is not being used effectively as raw material
for bio-ethanol. Thus, an important goal is to effectively use
the cellulose component of rice straw and then return the
resulting residues to the soil. The present study is part of a
basic research project on the production of bio-ethanol from
rice straw.
This paper reports on the development of a method for
saccharification pretreatment of rice straw for bio-ethanol
production that does not involve the use of chemical
treatment, as well as on the outcome of reusing the residues of
bio-ethanol production as a liquid fertilizer to grow Japanese
mustard spinach planted from seed.