On June 25, 2020, New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO, Headquarters: Tokyo) and the Advanced Hydrogen Energy Chain Association for Technology Development (AHEAD, Headquarters: Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture)[1] announced that they have conducted the world's first global hydrogen supply chain demonstration project, which transports hydrogen from Brunei Darussalam to Japan. NEDO is Japan’s largest public R&D funding organization specialized in innovative energy technologies. AHEAD was established in 2017 by four Japanese companies: global chemical engineering company Chiyoda (Headquarters: Yokomaha City, Kanagawa Prefecture)[2], Japanese shipping company Nippon Yusen (Headquarters: Tokyo)[3], and two Japanese trading companies, Mitsui & Co (Headquarters: Tokyo)[4] and Mitsubishi (Headquarters: Tokyo).[5] AHEAD is an association that supports hydrogen research in order to accelerate the development of hydrogen supply chains.
The project uses the "organic chemical hydride method" to build the hydrogen supply chain. Methylcyclohexane (MCH) generated in Brunei is transported by sea to Japan. The MCH is then separated into hydrogen and toluene at a dehydrogenation plant located in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture. The toluene is then sent back to Brunei’s hydrogeneration plant and processed to re-bond with hydrogen.
The first MCH transportation process was carried out in December 2019. The dehydrogenation plant in Kawasaki City began extracting hydrogen from MCH in April 2020 and has been supplying hydrogen to the gas turbine of the Mizue power plant owned by Toa Oil (Headquarters: Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture) since May 2020.[6] In June 2020, the project began transporting the toluene processed by the Kawasaki dehydrogenation plant to Brunei. NEDO and the AHEAD will operate the demonstration test until the end of 2020 to evaluate the performance of the hydrogenation/dehydrogenation plant equipment and identify any issues.
NEDO has contributed to the development of hydrogen technology since FY2015. Through this project, NEDO intends to establish a large-scale hydrogen utilization system that can transport hydrogen from overseas and use it for Japan’s hydrogen power generation.[7]
[1] https://www.ahead.or.jp/jp/organization.html
[2] https://www.chiyodacorp.com/jp/about/profile/
[3] https://www.nyk.com/profile/profile/
[4] https://www.mitsui.com/jp/ja/company/outline/profile/index.html
[5] https://www.mitsubishicorp.com/jp/ja/about/profile/
[6] https://www.toaoil.co.jp/company/location.html
[7] https://www.nedo.go.jp/news/press/AA5_101322.html