Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (President: Takahiro Hachigo, headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo) has been developing jointly with Iwatani Corporation the Smart H2 Station (so called SHS) of small packaged-type which generates H2 using electricity from solar panel to fill FCVs.

SHS is a packaged system including the high-pressure gas generator, tank and H2 filling equipment like the high-pressure electrolysis system, accumulator and dispenser. It can produce high-pressure H2 gas of 1.5 kg per day at a filling pressure of 35MPa under the condition of easy installation on the site and the provision of utilities like electricity and water.

Honda has been pursuing development of FCV since 1990 aiming to reduce CO2 emitted from vehicles closest possible to zero, and also searching for a means to have H2 as a fuel free from CO2 emission. The efforts have borne fruits in SHS.

An integrated CO2 – free system can be realized now after all from the generation of H2 from electrolysis using a renewable energy like solar panel to the ultimate consumption of filling into FCVs. The sales of SHS started in 2015, and marked nine cases of introduction in total as of August, 2016 including the verification machine introduced in 2014.

This business project started in 2015 with a target to develop H2 stations using renewable energies like solar beam or biomass at 100 locations all over the country by 2020. There were five cases already in 2015 and 13 cases of introduction until now in 2016. The Ministry of the Environment intends to introduce it first into the municipality-related fields and then diffuse to the private industries.

It is most characteristic that SHS realized the production of high-pressure H2 gas without any mechanical compressor. When electrolysis is done with the high-pressure electrolysis system of solid polymer electrolyte developed solely by the company, a high pressure up to 40MPa is applied to H2 in order to fill an FCV at 35 MPa. As no compressor is used, quietness and space-saving was attained by packaging, sized 3.28m wide x 2.14m deep x 2.10m high. The feature of its simplicity could also shorten the time of construction on the site.