The New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), Toyota Tsusho Corporation, NTT Facilities, Inc., Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd., Hrein Energy Inc., Technova Inc., and Muroran Institute of Technology jointly announced today that they will begin a "Power to Gas" hydrogen energy demonstration in Hokkaido in late November. This demonstration will aim to help develop a new energy system and a new business model for wind power. Because wind power's output fluctuates depending on wind conditions, by effectively converting the unstable part of the power to hydrogen, which can be used for thermal applications, the partners hope to increase the utility of wind power and encourage adoption.

The partners held a commemoration ceremony today at the demonstration project site, "Furaibo" at the Yuhigaoka Wind Farm in Tomamae Town, Hokkaido.

Hydrogen is expected to be a promising secondary energy in the future, attractive because it has no CO₂ emissions at the utilization stage and its diverse applications, which include electricity and thermal energy generation. To leverage the full environmental benefits of hydrogen energy, however, CO₂ emissions must be eliminated or reduced at the production stage. Low energy efficiency and high cost issues during the production of low-CO₂ hydrogen from renewable energy sources need to be addressed.

While wind, solar, and other renewable energies continue to gain market share, the large fluctuations in power output from renewable energy sources, which can arise from meteorological conditions or the imbalance between supply and demand, are becoming serious issue for wider adoption.

This demonstration project^*1 aims to develop new technologies that can realize low-CO₂ production of hydrogen, while also expanding the use of renewable energy by using hydrogen to solve some of the issues preventing their wider adoption. By focusing on wind power plants, with their fluctuating electric power output, the project will develop and demonstrate technologies to estimate the amount of electricity that can be sold at a stable pace, and it will also simulate electric power flow into the local grid to assist with grid stabilization. In the case of excess electrical power output, the project also demonstrates that part of electrical output can be converted into hydrogen, stored, and delivered for effective use as fuel.

The demonstration site is the Yuhigaoka Wind Farm's “Furaibo” ^*2 site in Tomamae Town, which is one of the best locations for wind power generation in Hokkaido. The demonstration will begin in late November 2017 and will consist of a technology evaluation and a feasibility study to establish “Power to Gas” ^*3 technology as an effective tool for promoting clean energy.

NEDO, Toyota Tsusho Corporation, NTT Facilities, Inc., Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd., Hrein Energy Inc., Technova Inc., and Muroran Institute of Technology began work on the project in February 2015. During this time, the partners developed business models and worked to design, manufacture and validate each component through test operations. Beginning in late November of this year, the partners will begin full-scale operations with the cooperation of Tomamae Town, in order to verify the performance of the system and the business model.

Regarding the demonstration, operations will begin by using NTT Facilities’ forecasting system to estimate the following day’s wind conditions and electricity output. Based on the forecast, the control system, developed by Kawasaki Heavy Industries, splits the electric power into a stable part, fed into the grid, and an unstable part, fed to the water electrolyzer, which was developed by Kawasaki Heavy Industries. Using Hrein Energy’s hydrogenation system, the hydrogen produced by the electrolyzer reacts with toluene to become methylcyclohexane (MCH). After this, the MCH is delivered to the application site, where it is separated into hydrogen and toluene by Hrein Energy’s dehydrogenation system. Finally, the regenerated hydrogen is mixed with liquid petroleum gas (LPG) to produce heat using a mixed-fuel boiler.

Role of each partner

Today, NEDO and the project partners held a ceremony at Yuhigaoka Wind Farm’s “Furaibo” site in Tomamae Town to commemorate the start of the demonstration. The event was attended by Yutaka Sugiura, the head of the Hokkaido Rumoi Subprefectural Bureau; Toshio Mori, the Mayor of Tomamae; and representatives from NEDO and the other partners.