On January 21, Kobe City and Kawasaki Heavy Industries reached an agreement to utilize a city land in Kobe Port as the receiving facility based on the hydrogen supply-chain project to import LH2 from Australia.

This project subsidized by NEDO is participated by Kawasaki, Iwatani and others to produce LH2 locally using lignite as its raw material which is an untapped natural resource of Australian origin, and to import to Japan by dedicated ships for domestic use as the fuel of FCV and power generation.

Before a full-fledged utilization of hydrogen energy, this development is under way now to procure a source of inexpensive hydrogen in a massive quantity. Kobe City offers about 1ha of city land in the north-eastern area of Kobe Airport for landing of liquefied hydrogen with the construction of receiving tanks for transportation by tank trucks. The facilities will be completed in 2020.