Glencal Technology has developed RedoxMaster® Technology, which dries organic materials without oxidising or carbonising them at low temperatures and in a short time, at an astonishingly low cost and with low carbon dioxide emissions, compared to conventional methods. By applying this advanced drying technology to various fields, Glencal Technology contributes to a sustainable society where environmental protection and economic growth are compatible.

  Glencal Technology Co., Ltd.. was established in 2013 as a new company specialising in environmental business, with its parent company, Glencal Co., Ltd. Since its establishment in 2002, Glencal Co., Ltd. has undertaken various investments and M&A advisory work, mainly in the medical and environmental sectors. One of the technologies we came across was the RedoxMaster® technology, which dries organic substances quickly, at low cost and with low carbon emissions, while preventing carbonisation and oxidation of the substance. We saw great potential in this technology and in December 2013, we established Glencal Technology Co., Ltd. which specialises in environmental business, to develop, commercialise and the RedoxMaster® technology.

  The strength of Glencal Technology is its possession of this revolutionary RedoxMaster® technology, but also the commercialisation know-how gained through the investment of its mother company, Glencal Co., Ltd.., and its extensive high-end network, both nationally and globally. Armed with this unique advantage, we hope to utilise the RedoxMaster® drying technology in various fields to solve global issues such as recent climate change, conflict-induced price spikes in commodities including food, fertiliser, fuel and animal feed, and water shortages. We will continue to develop and apply RedoxMaster® technology with the belief that solving environmental, food and energy problems will indirectly lead to solving global conflicts.

Masahito NAKAISHI
President and CEO
Glencal Technology Co., Ltd.

  Around the world, the price of livestock feed continues to rise. In late June 2022, the Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives of Japan (JA Zen-Noh), Japan's largest agricultural cooperative, announced that it would raise the feed supply price for the July-September period (national average for all livestock breeds) from the April-June period by JPY 14,000 per ton. This is the third consecutive term of price increases and the largest increase ever. The previous record high was a JPY 5,500 increase in the April-June 2021 period, more than double the previous record of 5,500 yen per ton. The reason for this is that feed material such as maize, soya oil slag and hay are dependent on imports and have been directly affected by the situation in Ukraine and the depreciation of the Japanese yen.

  Livestock feed can be broadly divided into fibre-rich roughage made from grass or grass-based feed and carbohydrate- and protein-rich concentrate feed such as corn, soya, bran and bran. Japan's overall feed self-sufficiency rate is merely 25%, of which coarse feed accounts for 76%, while the self-sufficiency rate for concentrate feed is only 12%.

  Feed costs account for a high proportion of livestock management costs, 30 to 50 per cent for cattle farming and 60 per cent for pigs and chickens farming, so the steep rise in feed prices is having a major impact on livestock farmers' operations, and if this trend continues, livestock farmers will increasingly be forced out of business, posing a major threat to Japan's food security. The Government of Japan had set targets to increase overall feed self-sufficiency from 25% to 34%, roughage self-sufficiency from 76% to 100% and concentrate feed from 13% to 15% between 2021 and 2032, but international conflict, climate change and the weak Japanese yen have caused feed prices to soar, hence the Government of Japan is urging a significant and rapid increase in feed self-sufficiency.

  Soya beans, green tea and coffee grounds from beverage factories, which were previously disposed of, can now be used as highly functional feed for livestock by drying them using RedoxMaster® technology, with low cost, low CO2 emissions and without carbonising or oxidising them. Dried green tea and coffee been waste from beverage factories are already being sold as livestock feed to JA-affiliated feed companies and livestock farmers in various regions as feed ingredient, and is highly regarded as a feed that is well-liked by livestock. (If the feed is oxidised and carbonised, animal do not eat the feed, hating the smell and tastes.)

  The National Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives (JA Zen-Noh) has announced that it will increase the prices of fertilisers sold to each prefectural organisation from June to October 2022 by 94% for imported urea and 80% for potassium chloride, compared to the previous period (November 2021 - May 2022).

  As to the reason for the price hike, JA Zen-Noh explains that "economic sanctions against Belarus, Chinese export restrictions and Russia's invasion of Ukraine have stalled exports from the world's leading fertiliser exporter, leading to a worldwide concentration of demand on limited alternative sources".

  With the increase in the world's population and economic growth, global fertiliser consumption is increasing year by year, nonetheless Japan imports almost all of necessary urea, ammonium phosphate and potassium chloride, the main raw materials for chemical fertilisers. As the resources of these raw materials unevenly exist in the world, Japan's fertiliser security is vulnerable as it is greatly affected by the global situation.

  The Japanese government has been tackling to reduce the use of chemical fertilisers. In its “Green Food System Strategy”, which aims to build a sustainable food system, the government has set targets to lessen the use of chemical fertilisers by 20% by 2030 and by 30% by 2050, and is promoting the cyclical use of organic matter and more efficient and smarter fertiliser application. They are also working to reduce the use of artificial fertilisers in order to improve the problem of soil acidification, which has become a serious issue in recent years.

  In June 2022, under the national 'Smart Agriculture Project' we conducted a demonstration experiment with the University of Tokyo, in the town of Shihoro, Hokkaido, to utilise liquid fertiliser, a by-product of biogas power generation. In biogas power generation, after fermentation of livestock manure, a liquid called digestate remains. Although digestate is rich in nutrients, it contains a lot of water, which means that it has not yet been used as a fertiliser. If digestion liquid could be dried at low cost and with no loss of nutrients, it would be possible to utilise digestion liquid as fertiliser, which until now has been disposed of at a high cost. Our RedoxMaster® technology, which dries organic matters at low cost and low temperatures without damaging the nutrients, has demonstrated that digestate, which used to be a nuisance, can now be utilised as fertiliser.

   “Unless we change the way we manage water, the wars of the 21st century will be over water.” warned then World Bank Vice-President Ismail Serageldin in 2009. Fortunately, Japan has never experienced 'drinking water shortage'. However, there are many areas in the world where water shortages are becoming more serious and clean water is not available. According to the United Nations Population Fund's World Population White Paper 2021, the total world population is 7.875 billion, and more than 40% of this population, or 3.6 billion people, suffer from water shortages, which are expected to become increasingly severer in the future.

  There are two main root causes of water problems: one is the growing demand for water and the other is the drastically decreasing supply of water.

  The first, the expanding demand for water, is due to population growth and industrial development. As the world's population increases, the amount of water consumption increases accordingly. Water is also used for industry and agriculture, so as the world's standard of living improves, the amount of water needed for daily life is also increasing. At the same time, industrial and domestic wastewater discharged due to industrial development has led to pollution of rivers, oceans and groundwater.

  The latter, reduction of water supply is mainly caused by global warming and the destruction of water sources due to development. Global warming is not only causing increased precipitation, but also more intense precipitation patterns. Climate change-induced droughts, heavy rainfall and flooding are making it more difficult to use water efficiently where and when it is needed. Even developed areas such as California and Australia are experiencing desertification because of drought. The destruction of water sources is also becoming more critical, as deforestation in the Amazon and other forms of deforestation have reduced the number of forests that store water.

  Water scarcity has caused serious damage worldwide in the past and has led to wars and conflicts between countries: on the Nile River, an international river that flows through 11 countries, there are frequent conflicts between countries in the basin over hydroelectric power, water for domestic use and irrigation. Conflicts have arisen between Hungary and Slovakia on the Danube River regarding the use of water for canals, South Korea and North Korea on the Han River over environmental and other issues surrounding dam construction, and India and Pakistan on the Indus River over water ownership. According to the Pacific Institute, a US think tank specialising in water-related issues, has reported a series of military actions targeting water infrastructure this year, including dams in Ukraine, Yemen, Somalia and Mali. With water shortages expected to become more serious in the future, it is predicted that conflicts and wars between countries over water will intensify. Consequently, water security is more important than food security, as water is deeply involved in agriculture and food cannot be produced if water is scarce.

  With RedoxMaster® technology, it is possible to produce water, which is fundamentally important for mankind, from organic waste that were previously discarded. For example, if a RedoxMaster® machine processes seven tonnes of food waste per day, between five and six tonnes of water is extracted from the waste. By capturing this water without releasing it into the atmosphere, water can be produced. With 1,000 RedoxMaster® units in operation, between 5,000 and 6,000 tonnes of distilled water per day could be available during treating food waste at low cost, while reducing carbon emissions. RedoxMaster® can be highly beneficial technology especially in the industrialised regions such as California and Australia where water shortage is severe due to drought and groundwater pumping, the population is large. By water generated by RedoxMaster® can be used as water for irrigation, industrial use and vegetable factories. It is also possible to use the water as drinking water after being filtered.

  In recent years, environmental pollution caused by ineffective recycling of plastic waste, marine plastics, etc. has become a global issue. The Collins English Dictionary in the UK publishes an annual 'Word of the Year' to symbolise the year, and it has chosen 'single use' to describe disposable products that are used only once as its word of the year for 2018. This is one indication that single-use plastic products, such as plastic straws, have become a global problem, with marine debris and its negative impact on the ecosystem has been pointed out. In response to this trend, major food service companies such as Starbucks and Kentucky Fried Chicken, and global hotel chains such as Hilton and Marriott, have announced that they will no longer use single-use plastic products.

  According to the 2018 UNEP report “Single Use Plastic”, the containers and packaging sector produces the largest amount of plastic, accounting for 36% of the total. Comparing the quantity of plastic containers and packaging disposed of per capita in different countries, Japan ranks the second in the world after the USA. When it comes to plastics in particular, Japan is far from being an environmentally advanced country, though it is commonly recognised as environmentally friendly state.

  At the end of 2017, China decided to ban the import of dirty plastics on the grounds that their acceptance would lead to environmental pollution. Other South-East Asian countries, which had been export destinations for other waste plastics, have followed this trend. As a result, waste plastics are languishing in developed countries, and the pressing issue is how to dispose of these waste plastics within their own countries. One strategy to tackle this problem is to utilise waste plastics for recycling, but recycling plastics involves a significant amount of cost, and the main principles of the 3Rs are to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle in the following order. The environmental impact increases in the order of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, so it is most efficient to first reduce the amount of plastic used. From this perspective, bioplastics are in the limelight as a solution to reducing the use of petroleum-based plastics.

  Bioplastics are plastics made from organic resources, corn and sugar cane being the most common, but any organic resource can be used as a raw material, including coffee bean residue and grass and tree pruning waste. Although there is high expectation for bioplastics, there have been several challenges to their widespread use. (1) high production costs, (2) the use of petroleum fuels for production, and (3) problems with heat resistance and strength. (1) and (2) are closely related, as high heat must be applied to dry the biomass material such as plants and other organic waste to manufacture bioplastics. This increases production costs and environmental impact due to consumption of large quantities of petroleum fuels. However, these problems can be solved with RedoxMaster®. RedoxMaster® can dry organic matters rapidly at low temperatures, which can significantly reduce the production costs of bioplastics. As it dries at low temperatures, it does not carbonise or oxidise the organic matters and (3) strength problems of the plastic products can be improved.

  Biomass plastic products using biomass from green tea and coffee squeezed residues treated with RedoxMaster® have already been put to practical use and are highly regarded for their high quality in the market. These include rental logistic pallets of UPR Corporation (the second largest rental pallet company in Japan), in-store trays for a prestigious U.S. coffee shop chain. As RedoxMaster® dries organic matters rapidly at low temperature, the biomass plastics manufactured by RedoxMaster®’has excellent strength, heat resistance and durability, which conventional bioplastic products have not been able to achieve. It is particularly noteworthy that pallets for logistics, which require extremely high strength and durability, could be made from biomass plastic. In addition, many trays made from biomass plastic are usually heat sensitive and cannot withstand the high heat of dishwashers, but the bioplastic made by RedoxMaster® is largely durable, so the trays can be used in dishwashers and have a reputation for being extremely practical to use in busy restaurants and coffee shops. At the same time, biomass plastic products using RedoxMaster® technology attracts attention as an item that can strongly appeal to investors which demand environmental compliance from the viewpoint of SDGs and ESG management. A RedoxMaster® machine has been installed in the laboratory of Tekken Construction Company (Japan Railways group), with whom we established the subsidiary Glencal Senary Co., Ltd., and we are jointly conducting research and development regarding innovative building materials utilising biomass.