The world’s largest hydrogen storage facility will be built in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture. On November 27, Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) and Japan Suiso Energy (JSE; Suiso means hydrogen in Japanese) held a groundbreaking ceremony for the liquefied hydrogen terminal to be built in the city .
The facility will be named the Kawasaki LH₂ Terminal, and its liquefied hydrogen storage tanks will have a capacity of 50,000 cubic meters, making it the largest commercial-scale hydrogen storage facility in the world. Until now, the largest hydrogen tank had been the one built by NASA at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in 2022, which has a capacity of just under 5,000 cubic meters. The new tank planned for Kawasaki will be roughly ten times larger.
Hydrogen has the potential to make a major contribution to carbon neutrality if its production methods can be further improved. This article examines hydrogen as a clean energy source and how KHI is developing its hydrogen-related businesses.
Why expectations are rising for hydrogen as a clean energy source
Hydrogen is one of the clean energy sources that is expected to help achieve carbon neutrality, because when hydrogen is burned, only water is produced.
However, the current mainstream method of producing hydrogen around the world is steam reforming using natural gas as a raw material, which poses a problem in that it emits large amounts of CO2 during the process . Hydrogen can also be produced by water electrolysis, but if the electricity used is thermal, this will essentially emit CO2 .
To address this issue, several approaches are being pursued, including carbon capture and storage (CCS) applied to conventional hydrogen production and the use of renewable electricity for electrolysis. Nevertheless, these low-carbon and carbon-free production methods are still under development, and concerns remain regarding their high costs.
KHI aims to produce clean hydrogen overseas
This initiative is led by the Japanese company KHI, and in addition to this facility, the company is promoting the construction of large liquefied hydrogen carriers . The company launched the Suiso Frontier , a vessel equipped with a 1,250 cubic meter liquefied hydrogen storage tank. In 2022, it conducted a demonstration of building a supply chain in which hydrogen would be produced in Australia and transported to Japan.
In the case of KHI’s initiative, the premise is that hydrogen will be produced overseas without emitting CO2, by using methods such as capturing and storing CO2 or using clean electricity as an energy source during production.
KHI also plans to build a liquefied hydrogen carrier with a capacity of 40,000 cubic meters in the future.
In addition to large companies, there are many startups working on hydrogen in Japan.
In addition to KHI and JSE, the Kawasaki LH₂ Terminal is also being developed by ENEOS, a major Japanese energy company. Other major Japanese companies that are actively involved in the hydrogen business include Toyota and Iwatani Corporation.
There are also quite a few Japanese startups actively working on hydrogen production technology and its widespread adoption. I wanted to cover that in detail, but it would be too long, so I will save it for another post.
