JEPLAN, Inc. (CEO: Masaki Takao; Location: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo) participated "Let's Fly by recycling 100,000 clothes!" hosted by Japan Airlines Co. As part of the project, we collected old clothes via BRING and produced a saccharification solution that enzymatically decomposes the cotton fibers contained in the collected clothes.
The production of bio-jet fuel has been completed through this project, and it has also passed the conformity inspection according to the international standard for bio-jet fuel. The bio-jet fuel will be used in JAL's regular flights in the future, and will be the first domestic bio-jet fuel to be produced in Japan.
The bio-jet fuel was manufactured by Green Earth Institute (Representative Director: Tomohito Ihara, Location: Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo), using the bio-process developed by The Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth (RITE) (President: Yoichi Kaya, Location: Kizugawa City, Kyoto Prefecture), and by utilizing existing facilities owned by several companies in Japan.
While the practical application of biojet fuel is underway around the world, the participation of people under the slogan "Let's fly by recycling 100,000 clothes!” made the fuel special because the fact that it was made from the old clothes that were collected with the hopes of all the participants.
With the creation of a sustainable society becoming an issue, the amount of clothes recycled as feedstock for bio-jet fuel has greatly surpassed the initial target of 100,000 clothes, with approximately 300,000 clothes collected. 1,428 stores from 29 companies participated in the project as recycling centers, and 40 companies supported the project. Going forward, we will continue to use this project as a best practice to promote cross-industry collaboration and encourage active consumer engagement, with the aim of realizing our vision of "BRING everyone into circular economy.”
At the beginning of this project, we had planned to operate a charter flight by JAL using manufactured bio-jet fuel, but unfortunately the charter flight was cancelled due to COVID-19. We would like to express our gratitude to everyone who participated in the recycling project and to the companies participating in the BRING project, and apologize for the sudden change in the content of the project.
Japan’s first domestic bio-jet fuel has been completed! 300,000 clothes collected via BRING are recycled into bio-jet fuel
2020/04/17