The Japanese trade ministry (Meti) has proposed allocating up to ¥370bn ($3.4bn) to support hydrogen technology development in the next 10 years.
The allocation will come out of a ¥2 trillion government fund created to back green innovation projects in efforts to decarbonize its society by 2050.
The fund is divided into 18 projects in three development areas of carbon-neutral power, energy transition and industrial structure change.
Meti today proposed allocating ¥300bn for development of large-scale hydrogen import and supply chain, aiming for long-term supply cost reductions, at a panel discussing the use of the green innovation fund in the energy transition area.
The fund is expected to subsidize development and a demonstration project of hydrogen transport technology, as well as development of hydrogen liquefaction and hydrogenation technologies.
Japan’s potential demand for hydrogen is projected to hit 20mn t/yr in 2050, compared with 3mn t/yr in 2030.
Another Japanese venture Hystra is also expected later this year to import hydrogen produced from brown coal, or lignite, at Australia’s Latrobe Valley on the liquefied hydrogen carrier Suiso Frontier.
The ¥300bn allocated for hydrogen technology development includes ¥26bn used to subsidize a verification and demonstration project of a hydrogen-fired or co-fired gas turbine power generating technology.
Meti also proposed allocating ¥70bn for developing a large-scale hydrogen production electrolyser as Japan targets to play catch-up with EU countries.
Consortium FH2R is operating Japan’s biggest 10MW electrolyser to produce hydrogen using power generated at a 20MW solar unit in Fukushima.
This is a Businesswire Feed; edited by Clean-Future Team