Japan sets aside USD 3.4 billion from green fund to boost hydrogen R&D

The Japanese government has reportedly allocated USD 3.4 billion from its green innovation fund to accelerate the research and development of hydrogen and promote its use for the next decade.

For the record, Japan had previously aimed to raise the hydrogen demand in the country to 3 million tonnes by 2030, subsequently increasing it to 20 million tonnes by 2050. However, the current demand is around 2 million tonnes only.

Japan’s Industry ministry was quoted saying that the state-owned research and development agency namely New Energy and Industrial Development Organization (NEDO) has reportedly started acknowledging submissions for two hydrogen projects.

The ministry further elaborated on the projects citing that one of the projects is expected to be a USD 2.7 billion facility to create an extensive supply chain of hydrogen and promote the demand.

Meanwhile, the other project is supposedly a USD 641 million project that will be aimed to develop a hydrogen production system supported by water electrolysis. This project will primarily use the electricity derived from renewable energy sources.

The two projects will be funded by the government’s USD 18 billion Green Innovation Fund, which was created to achieve the 2050 set target of zero carbon emission, sources claimed.

These projects are a first in 18 project setups. Details regarding the other projects such as focusing on the R&D activities, scaling down the costs of offshore windmills, and constructing a supply chain of ammonia as a fuel are likely to be finalized by the third quarter of the year.

It is worth mentioning that hydrogen is extensively used to power rockets. It is extracted from coal and natural gas and is widely adopted in oil refineries and the production of ammonia used for fertilizers.

Keeping in view Japan’s 10-year long promotion project, the demand for hydrogen is expected to surge in various sectors including construction, power generation, and transport.

Source credits-

https://news.trust.org/item/20210518091509-53kpu/