The aim of this research is to decipher and analyse Japan’s energy policy, and its development and outcome since the early 70s, focusing on an evaluation of ‘energy security’ from the year 2000 through to the present.

The analysis is based on the primary assertion that Japanese governments have largely failed over the years to achieve ‘energy security’. The proposed research therefore aims to answer a major question regarding Japan’s energy policy for achieving energy security.

Current research has focused on contemporary explanations for Japan’s present problematic energy security situation, such as recent domestic and regional instability in the major oil and natural gas producing countries, fierce competition between consumers for access to these resources and the uncertainty regarding the amount of fossil fuels remaining to meet world energy needs. However these studies have overlooked the underlying causes for the malfunction of the Japanese energy policy, causes which have challenged Japan in dealing with their current difficulties. My central argument and aim is to demonstrate that the major obstacles since the early 2000s to Japan’s achieving energy security are the result of incremental and cumulative formulation and implementation malfunctions in their energy policy from the 1980s to the present – problems aggravated by the current obstacles mentioned above.

My research, the first study in understanding the relationship between long term political-economic-perceptional factors and current policy outcomes, is aimed at providing a new perspective for the understanding of Japan’s energy policy. Understanding the particular constraints Japan has faced while seeking to improve energy security over the years will provide useful tools and perspectives for policy makers. This research will offer short and long term solutions, including suggestions regarding new primary domestic and international response mechanisms, institutional planning and eduction, and social concensus building in order to achieve social responsibility for the use of energy. Inherent in the proposed research, therefore, are crucial policy implications.

David Schorr’s research on environmental law includes issues relating to renewable-energy. His research on Israel’s new Clean Air Law shows that the law requires action to mitigate the effects of greenhouse gas emission, with the potential to require industries to use renewable energy. His research into the “best available technique” standard also has implications for renewable-energy mandates for industry. The Faculty of Law’s “Law & Environment Program”, which he heads, is currently researching legal tools for regulating the environmental aspects of gas & oil drilling. The Environmental Justice Clinic, with which he will be affiliated in 2011-2012, will be focusing on climate change as one of the most pressing issues on its agenda

The aim of the study is to identify and select native species as new sources of  energy crops, not  competing with agricultural crops for arable land and water resources. Certain desert plants have evolved to successfully cope with arid conditions using saline water sources. We are currently studying several such drought-resistant, high biomass-yielding varieties. We have identified several salt cedar species with high biomass producing potential under extreme conditions, and capability of establishing forests in dry zones and desert areas utilizing wastewater irrigation. Further characterization of these fast-growing species is in progress, aiming at improving stress tolerance and biomass production

Salt cedar- Tamarix aphylla(Erect type) grown in the desert and irrigation with reclaimed water

Five months after planting

Twenty months after planting

he continued utilization of fossil fuels as our major energy source in not sustainable. To tackle this problem, a global effort is being carried out for developing alternative energy resources. The utilization of plant carbohydrates as a source for bioethanol production is believed to be a promising avenue. Utilization of plants would not only substitute dwindling fossil fuel resources, but would also improve the balance between production and consumption of greenhouse gases and their negative effects on global warming. Bioethanol is obtained by the fermentation of plant carbohydrates, which are mostly found in plant cell walls in the form of polysaccharide polymers such as cellulose. Before the fermentation process can take place, the cellulosic material first needs to be broken down into its monosaccharide components. The problem, however, is that the cellulosic material in the cell walls is associated with another polymer, lignin (“wood”). Lignin interferes with the breakdown of cellulose and is therefore a major obstacle to its utilization for the production of bioethanol. Although lignin can be separated from the cellulosic material by chemical means, this is not a viable option as there are substantial losses in cellulosic biomass during the process. The ideal solution would be to develop a plant species that contained low levels of lignin in the cell wall, and in this regard our research has been successful. We have discovered a certain group of proteins that regulate the amount of the lignin in the cell walls of plant vascular tissue. When activated, these proteins cause a reduction in the amount of lignin produced. Plant varieties with constitutively active mutant forms of these proteins have lower lignin levels in their vascular tissue, while at the same time show normal growth rate and seed production. In summary, the technology we’ve developed would increase the efficiency in separating the lignin from the cellulosic material for the fermentation and production of bioethanol.

This invention uses a cheap and efficient, ecologically safe hybrid photobioreactor for the simultaneous detoxification of industrial wastewater and production of micro-algal biomass. It is a self-sustaining process using known technologies. Wastewater is treated in a reactor containing active aerobic micro-organisms. Oxygen is fed in from a second compartment, separated from the reactor by a gas permeable membrane. The second compartment contains photosynthetic algae which produce oxygen when exposed to sunlight and consume the carbon dioxide produced by the aerobic micro-organisms. The algae multiply and in this way themselves become an energy-rich biomass.

Wastewater treatment is of major importance to the environment, but conventional methods suffer from both high costs as well as having to dispose of high levels of contaminants extracted from the water. There is thus a need for an efficient, low-cost method of treating wastewater that is also environmentally friendly. Toxic compounds lend themselves to breakdown in the presence of oxygen and the technique of using aerobic bacteria to do this has been known for some time, but the problem of transporting the oxygen to the bacteria has always been a major obstacle to implementing this solution.

Potential Applications

Reactors could be installed both in factories with organic pollutant-containing effluents and also at municipal levels.

The advantages of this invention are:

1.      Safety

·        No pollution of the atmosphere with hazardous substances during photosynthetic aeration.

·        Only energy from sunlight is used

·        No exposure to microbiological hazards

2.      Cost Benefits

·        Commercialization of algal biomass will reduce the cost of wastewater treatment

·        Solar energy is used for the production of oxygen

·        A windfall production of algal biomass

collaborate with  Dr Pnina Vardi