C&EN Feb 3 issue has article on Japan’s preference for green hydrogen. Article says hydrogen at present is 10x more expensive than natural gas, but they think cost will fall to 1.5x as electrolysis equipment is mass produced. In addition Japan will subsidize hydrogen for the next 15 years. Businesses that purchase a minimum of 3000 tons per year will pay no more than the natural gas. No mention that Japan has no natural gas of its own. They are a major buyer of LNG and pay high prices due to shipping costs.
They can obtain hydrogen from Australia, but think it is not economical to ship it from ports. (That’s probably because hydrogen embrittles steel making it difficult to distribute by existing natural gas pipelines.) Better to generate hydrogen where needed by electrolysis of water.
Japan still wants to be carbon neutral by 2050. They see green hydrogen as part of the program.
Ocean ships are under development that will be fueled by hydrogen with four 40,000L hydrogen tanks.
Hystra is a research association in Japan promoting green hydrogen. Formed in 2016, they built a demonstration project in Australia to make hydrogen from brown coal storing co-product carbon dioxide. It was completed in 2022. Hydrogen will likely be used to make liquid fuels for aircraft and heavy vehicles. Methanol from hydrogen and carbon dioxide is known. Methanol homologation can make longer carbon chain hydrocarbons or alcohols similar to current liquid fuels. Monsanto acetic acid process demonstrates addition of one carbon to methanol.
Another way to use hydrogen is in the form of ammonia. A Japanese power company recently conducted trials using ammonia in a traditional thermal power plant.
From the link: TOKYO, June 26 (Reuters) - JERA, Japan’s biggest power generator, said on Wednesday it has concluded a three-month trial of co-firing 20% of ammonia with coal at its Hekinan thermal power station in central Japan with positive results.
And… JERA said results were positive, confirming that nitrogen oxides levels were no higher than when firing coal alone, sulphur oxides were reduced by 20%, and generation of nitrous oxide, which has a strong greenhouse effect, was below the detection threshold.
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The problem with ammonia, as well as with gaseous hydrogen, is that it needs to be manufactured. That takes energy. The thermodynamics balance will always be a negative. However, ammonia is probably easier to transport in a liquid form, compared to gaseous hydrogen.
Lastly, also from Japan, the government plans to increase the use of nuclear power to meet the country’s energy needs. Fourteen years after the Fukushima earthquake and tsunami, Japan is still mostly dependent on fossil fuels for electricity generation. Renewables have not grown enough, and the government now sees it needs more nuclear to provide baseload power.
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The link below shows a chart of Japan’s electricity mix, if you are interested.