NEDO, Japan's public body for new energy and industrial technology development, has selected two research themes in the fourth call of its Bio-manufacturing Revolution Promotion Project. The prospective implementers are Taiyo Oil and Nisshin OilliO Group. NEDO announced the selections on 4 November 2026 and says it has adopted 19 themes under the programme to date. The release labels both as prospective implementers and notes that a selection can lapse if adoption conditions are not met.
The two themes
Taiyo Oil's theme is a demonstration of domestic biofuel production from Okinawa regional resources. It spans research items 1(b), 1(c), 3, 4 and 5. Nisshin OilliO Group's theme is development of fat-and-oil-focused methane fermentation technology using unused oil resources. It covers items 3, 4 and 5.
| Prospective implementer | Theme | Research items |
|---|---|---|
| Taiyo Oil | Domestic biofuel production demonstration from Okinawa regional resources | 1(b), 1(c), 3, 4, 5 |
| Nisshin OilliO Group | Fat-and-oil-focused methane fermentation technology using unused oil resources | 3, 4, 5 |
The release lists theme titles and the research items each covers. It gives no award amounts for either theme and does not say how each is split between commissioned and subsidised work.
The cost test
For items 3 and 4, scale-up and separation, purification and processing, NEDO sets a development target of cutting the production cost of substances made from unused feedstocks to 1.2 times current products or less, the level at which a final product can be put on the market. The programme has a planned budget of about ¥270bn over its full term, from fiscal 2023 to fiscal 2032 (planned). Stage-gate review timing is set theme by theme.
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's research and development plan defines unused resources to include waste cooking oil from restaurants, food-processing residues, agricultural residues, thinned timber, old clothing, waste paper and household waste and sludge. The plan sets the first stage-gate review within two years of the start of development, and the reviews can end a project or change its budget.
Conditions on participants
The fifth edition of that plan is dated 1 September 2026. Its revision note lists the addition of a working-group resolution on project cancellation among the changes. The plan requires executives of the programme's principal participating companies to appear before the working group each year and to report on their commitment. If the working group finds the commitment inadequate and the problem is not fixed by the date it sets, it can resolve to recommend cancelling the project. For commissioned work, NEDO would then ask for part of the funds received in the year concerned to be returned, at a rate set by the working group in three tiers, for example 10%, 30% or 50%. For subsidised work, payments are withheld after the deficiency is flagged until improvement is seen.