{"id":102977,"date":"2020-11-02T11:39:40","date_gmt":"2020-11-02T08:39:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/ambitious-but-controversial-japans-new-hydrogen-project\/"},"modified":"2020-11-02T11:39:40","modified_gmt":"2020-11-02T08:39:40","slug":"ambitious-but-controversial-japans-new-hydrogen-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/ambitious-but-controversial-japans-new-hydrogen-project\/","title":{"rendered":"#Ambitious but controversial: Japan’s new hydrogen project"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Ambitious but controversial: Japan’s new hydrogen project<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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\"Japan
\n Japan has few fossil fuel resources, and relies heavily on imported liquified natural gas (LNG) and coal
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Japan’s new 2050 deadline for carbon neutrality has thrown a spotlight on its efforts to find new, greener fuel options, including an ambitious but controversial liquid hydrogen venture.<\/p>\n

The Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain (HESC) is a joint Japanese-Australian project intended to produce plentiful, affordable fuel for Japan. Here are some questions and answers about the venture:<\/p>\n

Why hydrogen?<\/p>\n

Japan has few fossil fuel resources, and relies heavily on imported liquified natural gas (LNG), coal and nuclear power, which has been curtailed since the Fukushima disaster.<\/p>\n

The mountainous, natural disaster-prone country is struggling to ramp up its renewable energy production, and is therefore investigating a variety of fuel alternatives.<\/p>\n

It has invested heavily in hydrogen, which produces only steam and no carbon dioxide when burnt, making it the focus of some interest.<\/p>\n

Japan currently produces hydrogen domestically, in liquid and compressed gas forms, mostly from natural gas and oil.<\/p>\n

It uses it in microfuel cells for residential buildings, experimental power plants and fuel cell vehicles, but production domestically is limited and expensive.<\/p>\n

What is HESC?<\/p>\n

The Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain is an experiment to see whether Japan can establish a durable supply of liquid hydrogen from Australia, to be burned to generate electricity.<\/p>\n

The hydrogen will be produced and liquified in the Australian state of Victoria, where it will be extracted from a type of coal known as lignite.<\/p>\n

This so-called brown coal currently effectively lacks a market, making it a potentially attractive, cheaper alternative to domestic hydrogen production for Japan, despite the extra costs of bringing it 9,000 kilometres (5,600 miles) by sea.<\/p>\n

The project’s pilot phase, partially funded by Japanese and Australian authorities, has received investment of around Aus$500 million ($350 million).<\/p>\n

How will it work?<\/p>\n

From next year, a site on an artificial island near Kobe in western Japan will become the pilot terminus for the world’s first ship designed to transport liquid hydrogen, a Japan-built vessel called the Suiso Frontier.
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For now, the imposing spherical tank 19 metres (60 feet) in diameter on the site is being used to store domestically produced liquid hydrogen.<\/p>\n

If the tests are successful by 2022 or 2023, the project will be extended and will enter a commercial phase after 2030. A new terminus in Japan will then be built, along with larger ships.<\/p>\n

But the process is complicated: to be transported by sea as a liquid, hydrogen needs to be cooled to -253 degrees Celsius (-423.4 degrees Fahrenheit)\u2014an expensive process that uses a lot of energy.<\/p>\n

Is hydrogen really green?<\/p>\n

Hydrogen’s green credentials depends largely on how it is produced.<\/p>\n

Green hydrogen can be manufactured by electrolysis of water, using electricity obtained through renewable energy.<\/p>\n

But every tonne of hydrogen produced from coal emits 20 tonnes of carbon dioxide, more than double the CO2<\/sub> emissions created when hydrogen is produced from natural gas.<\/p>\n

Comparing the emissions from producing hydrogen to those from burning coal is complicated, experts say, but they agree that it won’t be considered environmentally friendly unless produced renewably.<\/p>\n

HESC backers insist it can be environmentally viable\u2014if not renewable\u2014through carbon capture programmes. <\/p>\n

One Australian initiative, called CarbonNet, would see the captured CO2<\/sub> buried under the seabed near Victoria.<\/p>\n

For HESC backers like Motohiko Nishimura of Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Japan’s 2050 carbon-neutral deadline “will have a great positive impact” on the project.<\/p>\n

But not everyone in Japanese industry is convinced, including Shigeru Muraki, an executive at Tokyo Gas, who favours investment in ammonia fuel instead.<\/p>\n

“Even with carbon capture and storage methods, it can’t be considered as green hydrogen,” he said, referring to the HESC project.<\/p>\n

He sees green hydrogen produced from renewable sources as likely to become price competitive with time.<\/p>\n

And environmentalists like Nicholas Aberle, from the campaign group Environment Victoria, are deeply sceptical.<\/p>\n

They fear “a situation in which coal-to-hydrogen can only be made commercial without (carbon capture), and we can see greedy companies trying to push ahead despite the climate impacts,” he told AFP.<\/p>\n

Commercial-scale hydrogen production from coal without carbon-capture would be “climate vandalism”, he said.\n <\/p>\n\n

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For hydrogen to be truly ‘clean’ it must be made with renewables, not coal\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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\n \u00a9 2020 AFP<\/p>\n

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Citation<\/strong>:
\n Ambitious but controversial: Japan’s new hydrogen project (2020, November 2)
\n retrieved 2 November 2020
\n from https:\/\/techxplore.com\/news<\/a>\/2020-11-ambitious-controversial-japan-hydrogen.html<\/p>\n

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