The automaker is focusing on means other than electric vehicles for realizing carbon neutrality, or the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to net zero.
Suzuki Motor President Toshihiro Suzuki and other company executives visited a dairy farm in the state of Gujarat, western India, on Dec. 25 where feces of cows are collected and put into a fermentation tank to extract methane gas. The gas is used as fuel for cooking while the fecal residue is used as organic fertilizer.
The farm is part of a test model village run by a subsidiary of the National Dairy Development Board, an Indian government agency involved in installing and managing biogas plants.
Suzuki Motor is working on a project that involves it buying cow feces, which are often discarded, from dairy farmers to extract methane using a method similar to the one adopted at the farm, and using the gas as an alternative fuel for compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles.
Suzuki Motor has inked an investment agreement with the board’s unit and plans to expand the biogas operation across India in cooperation with major dairy associations.
The burning of methane, which has about 28 times the warming effect of carbon dioxide, prevents its release into the atmosphere.
Feces from 10 cows in a single day can fuel a CNG vehicle for a whole day, and India is estimated to be home to 300 million cows.
Suzuki Motor accounts for more than 70% of CNG vehicle sales in India.
At the dairy farm visited by company executives, cow feces solidified in the shape of a disk were dried in the sun. Such disks are traditionally used as fuel for cooking in rural India, so there is no resistance to the use of cow feces.
“It is highly effective in boosting rural areas,” Suzuki said of the company’s project. “We need to cooperate and contribute to the development of India.”
While the automaker is considering rolling out similar projects in other countries, its plan in India focuses more on contributing to society. As such, it is still uncertain whether it can be profitable.
Suzuki Motor Adviser Osamu Suzuki, the father of the current president who led the company’s foray into the Indian market, died in Japan on the day of the visit.
