The 15th general exhibition of hydrogen and fuel cell of FC EXPO2019 was held in Tokyo Big Sight for three days from February 27 to March 1.

From the industrial gas-related industries, Iwatani, Suzuki Shokan and Tomoe Shokai introduced their involvement in the hydrogen business. Many manufacturers of the related machines and materials also participated in the exhibition and announced the latest trend of their hydrogen energy business.

Regarding the recent trend of visitors, it is impressive that there are so many foreign visitors including mainly those from China and Korea. In addition, more foreign used booths to exhibit and drew visitors’ attention utilizing videos and placards in Japanese and English.

A foreign compressor manufacturer who has been joining the exhibition for nearly 10 years says, “In case of the recent similar exhibitions held in USA, Europe, China or Korea, most of the visitors are native people. However, the Japanese exhibitions are regarded to be very effective information sources where hydrogen–related people of the world get together because of the abundant information of infrastructure developments and related manufacturers.” It seems that the exhibition sites are most suitable to obtain information for the people concerned in all countries of the world.

As for the domestic hydrogen energy, under the basic policy of hydrogen announced at the end of 2017, nation-wide activities are now on the way for the expansion of mobility like passenger cars, infrastructure developments, the hydrogen procurement and verifications related to local production and consumption.

From a numerical aspect, the cumulative figures are 3000 cars at the end of January 2019. It has been decided that the development of 113 locations has been decided for hydrogen station. The introduction of FC forklifts reached 160 units in two years, and the new entry of filling equipment manufacturers has been remarkable during the year. As for the verification project, “Fukushima H2 Energy Research Field” held at Namie-cho of Fukushima Prefecture is drawing people’s attention. Hydrogen is generated by alkaline electrolysis using the electricity from photovoltaic power source and is planned to be transmitted to the metropolitan area as compressed hydrogen. Toshiba Energy Systems, Iwatani and Tohoku Electric are now engaged in the project as actual players. They aim to start a practical operation in July 2020.