Over a 2-day period from November 28th and 29th The Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) held its third techno forum entitled JOGMEC Techno Forum 2015. On both days, about 1,000 people from companies and organizations, and including researchers involved in this field gathered together. JOGMEC is a government organization undertaking activities aiming at the securing of resources and their stable supply. It has been striving to strengthen relationships with countries having natural resources by supplying them with risk management regarding the development of the prospecting for natural resources and through technological cooperation. The forum has been held since the year before last as part of a range of activities to deepen cooperative relationships with countries having natural resources by utilizing fully the wide range of technology held by Japanese companies. This year the effect the unprecedented current slump in international oil prices, and also the technology of reduction of CO2 using in oil production such as with CCS (carbon capture and storage) and EOR, are the core areas regarding announcements and discussions.

On October 28th, the first day of the forum, Vice-President Keiichi Nakagaki of the Chiyoda gave a special talk called “The Involvement of the Chiyoda in New Business Fields.” Along with the offshore (ocean gas field development) and upstream business of the company, he commented on the hydrogen business as another pillar of a new business field. Vice-President Nakagaki gave a detailed explanation. He talked about a product called Spera (Latin for “have hope”) Hydrogen. This involves methylcyclohexane (MCH) which is a liquid in which hydrogen chemically fixed to toluene of which the main ingredient is gasoline. Based on this, long term storage and long distance transport of hydrogen which had been difficult up to now can be undertaken with the existing infrastructure, making low cost possible. In 2004 the company for the first time anywhere succeeded in developing the Spera catalyst, which is a dehydrogenating catalyst based on platinum nanoparticles. Based on this, technology which had been considered impossible could be brought about for removing hydrogen from MCH, in addition, he explained about the carbon capture and storage (CCS) which comes about during hydrogen reforming at the gas fields, and production of hydrogen from natural resources of the future. He also mentioned getting involved in the NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization) operation involving plans for trials of the usage of the imported hydrogen at the thermal electric power stations in preparation for full scale introduction into the supply chain for the hydrogen society of the future.