紙パルプ産業におけるバイオマスエネルギー利用の課題と展望

摘要

世界の紙•板紙生産量は2007年をピークに大きな伸びを見せることなく，横ばい推移が続いている.背景にはリーマン•ショックなど経済変動の影響やITの利用拡大にともなう紙需要の減少がある.とくに欧米での新聞用紙と印刷•筆記用紙の急減，および中国の経済成長率の鈍化による需要の伸びの低下は大きい.日本も欧米同様の需要減に苦しむが，構造的には欧州に類似しており，将来への展望として紙パルプ産業でなく"森林製品産業"としての欧州の取組みは大いに参考となる.本稿では，わが国の国土を60％以上占める森林資源を，紙パルプ産業が再生可能エネルギーとして利用する優位性について述べるとともに，今後開発が期待される，木質資源から化学プロセスにより液体燃料をつくり出す技術について論じてみたい.%World pulp and paper production has continued to be flat without great growth after the peak in 2007. These phenomena have been caused by the influence of economic fluctuations due to the financial crisis of 2007-2008 and the decline of demand due to the expansion of the use of IT. Especially the collapse in the demand for newsprint, and printing and writing paper in European and US countries, and the decreased demand growth due to the slowdown in the growth of the economy in China, are causes that impact the situation. Japan has suffered from declining demand like European and US countries. Since the structure of the pulp and paper industry in Japan is similar to that in Europe, efforts to address declining demand problems not of the "pulp and paper industry" but of the "forestry product industry" in Europe are extremely informative for Japan regarding the outlook for the pulp and paper industry. This paper explains the advantages of the use of forest resources that cover more than 60% of Japan as renewable energies for the pulp and paper industry, and the technology to produce liquid fuel from these wood resources through chemical processes, which are expected to be developed in the future.