Leading food seasoning company, Ajinomoto, has switched to rice hulls as direct biomass fuel in its Northern Thailand plants. Rice hull is an abundant resource in Northern Thailand, with no market value, and is just being burned by farmers as a disposal method. Ajinomoto has considered harnessing this resource, (through purchase from farmers), to power the steam generation needs of their fermentation plants in Northern Thailand. A reduction of about 100,000 tons in carbon dioxide emissions (or about 5% of the group’s annual total) has been estimated. Application for registering the project under the United Nations Clean Development Mechanism is underway..