Yamaguchi Liquid Hydrogen, a JV manufacturer of liquid hydrogen (LH2) between Iwatani and Tokuyama, is going to double the current LH2 production capacity up to 6,000ℓ/h with a scheduled start in November 2017. A liquefier (3000ℓ/h) will be added to the existing liquefying facilities (3000ℓ/h) inside Tokuyama’s Tokuyama Plant located in Shunan City in Yamaguchi Prefecture.

The equipment for the addition is made by Linde as existing one. The total investment amounted to 4 billion yen. The company is the third domestic production base of industrial LH2 established on October 1, 2011 with the investment rate of 65% by Iwatani and 35% by Tokuyama, following Iwatani Industrial Gases (IIG) Chiba Plant (Ichihara City, Chiba Pref.) as well as Hydro-Edge (Sakai City, Osaka Pref.). Using the crude gas supplied by Tokuyama, the joint venture has been engaged in the production of LH2 since June 2013, distributed by Iwatani to industrial hydrogen users including the semiconductor, electronics parts and chemical industries in the West Japan area mainly of Chugoku, Shikoku and Kyushu districts and also to JAXA’s Tanegashima Space Center for launching of rockets. The growth of demand for hydrogen is expected in the field of fuel cell vehicles (FCV) and FC buses in Kyushu and Chugoku districts from now on.

The approximate volume of 27million m3 of LH2 for the increased portion of 3,000ℓ/h this time is equivalent to that for about 20,000 FCVs running through the year. According to Iwatani’s Public Relations Dept., all of the increased portion is not allocated to the automobile-related demand, but it is aimed to be used also for contribution to a stable supply with an enhanced backup capacity to cover the additional portion in the industrial requirements and the bettered two systems of production equipment.

LH2 is a supply means better suited for a large-volume transportation and storage than compressed hydrogen. Iwatani is the only company that has been engaged to supply LH2 for industrial use in Japan. During the second quarter of 2015 the sales volume of LH2 reached a level to exceed that of compressed hydrogen.

For your information, Iwatani’s supply capacity of LH2 has now been expanded to 15,000 ℓ/h in total (5 systems) with this enhancement combined with the two systems of Hydro- Edge and one system of IIG Chiba.