On December 11, Kawasaki Heavy Industries held a launching ceremony of the world-first liquid hydrogen carrier to be used for the verification of international hydrogen supply chain in its Kobe Works. The ship will be launched for the technological verification to establish a hydrogen supply chain between Australia and Japan relating to NEDO’s subsidy project titled “Demonstration Project for Establishment of Mass Hydrogen Marine Transportation Supply Chain Derived from Unused Brown Coal.”

The ship named “Suiso Frontier” will be equipped with a liquid hydrogen storage tank having a vacuum-insulated and double-shell-structure with a capacity of 1,250m3, and be completed in the autumn of 2020.

　In 2016, KHI established HySTRA standing for CO2-free Energy Supply-chain Technology Research Association in collaboration with Iwatani, Shell Japan and J Power, and is now working for the development and establishment of a series of supply chain by producing hydrogen from brown coal in Latrobe Valley of Victoria, Australia so that it can be transported as liquefied hydrogen to Japan. For information, Marubeni participated in HySTRA in 2018 and JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy also joined from 2019.

Regarding the supply chain using hydrogen from brown coal, it has been picked up for commercialization for 2030s in the guideline to develop a domestic hydrogen energy titled “Strategic Roadmap of Hydrogen/Fuel Cell”.

NEDO’s subsidy project mentioned above shows a plan to establish a pilot supply chain having a scale of about one 100ths of a general commercial chain. In HySTRA they are also constructing a receiving base of liquefied hydrogen in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture and a brown coal gasification facility in Australia.