“The International Hydrogen Development Forum 2013 was held for two days from January 30 to 31 in Fukuoka of the core region to promote hydrogen energy in Japan, where world researchers and business promoters relating to hydrogen energy had got together every year.

In the Forum, speeches were delivered about the hydrogen energy projects in European countries like Germany, Finland, Norway and the United Kingdom as well as Japan with addition of the US and Korea. There were also lectures on renewable energies and the development of “a low-carbon economy” with their relations to the hydrogen projects.

All speakers from the countries which participated in the forum gave comments about their expectation for leveling with hydrogen of renewable energy outputs in the recent trend of shifting from nuclear power to renewable energy since the 3.11 Great East Japan Earthquake.　Above all, Kuniaki Honda, professor of Institute for Carbon-neutral Energy Research Symposium, Kyushu University pointed out that the storage of hydrogen fuel cell is inferior in comprehensive efficiency to that of common batteries and it is indispensable to improve efficiency of electrolytic hydrogen.

Haruhiko Ando, the first head of Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Promotion Office of Agency for Natural Resources and Energy and professor of Hitotsubashi University Postgraduate School, appealed the importance of cross-departmental partnership beyond industrial entities or countries in the development of hydrogen energy, from his experiences of engagement in the development of hydrogen fuel cells.

He introduced the importation of by-product hydrogen from Middle-east using organic hydride for the hydrogen supply chain from abroad and also the development project of liquefied hydrogen carrier vessel.

In Germany which is promoting a nuclear-free power generation and renewable energy alternatives, they introduced a business model to make up for the gap between demand and supply with hydrogen produced by the surplus electricity of wind-power generation. For this they transport hydrogen through their natural gas pipelines. It is an alternative method of German own because there has been a delay in their development of power supply network to meet the large demand for electricity in the southern area to be brought down from the northern district where there are lots of wind-power generation facilities.

On the other hand, the Northern Europe countries are taking contrasting measures for hydrogen energy. Finland which has abundant forest resources reduces the import amount of petroleum by means of utilization of biomass hydrogen from timbers, leading to avoidance of flow-out of foreign currencies and enhancement of security, while Norway takes particular note of hydrogen from the viewpoint of measures against global warming and showed their clear intention to foster hydrogen to be a resource for export in place of fossil fuels.

With regard to the commercialization program in the automotive industry, Japan and Germany are taking a lead, but last year the UK also started a program with the participation of automobile manufacturers and infra-structure manufacturers (such as energy and industrial gas companies). Korea’s budget for hydrogen energy-related development is on the decrease after the peak in 2008, but it is reported that a commercialization program mainly for household co-generation and the automobile industry is now on the way just like Japan.”