Fukuoka City (Mayor: Soichiro Takashima), Saibu Gas Co., Ltd. (President: Yukinori Michinaga), Seiko Electric Co., Ltd. (President and Representative Director: Hidetoshi Soeda), Toyota Tsusho Corporation (President & CEO: Ichiro Kashitani), Nishinippon Plant Engineering and Construction Co., Ltd. (President: Yuzo Sasaki), and Mitsubishi Kakoki Kaisha, Ltd. (President and Representative Director: Toshikazu Tanaka) have established a new cooperative, Fukuoka Green Hydrogen Utilization Promotion Council Limited Liability Partnership ("Fukuoka Green"), with the goal of both working towards enhancing the Fukuoka City Hydrogen Station ("Hydrogen Station") and jointly carrying out activities to expand hydrogen use.

Fukuoka City has been operating the hydrogen station as part of an industry-academia-government collaboration since 2015, when being selected for the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism's Breakthrough by Dynamic Approach in Sewage High Technology (B-DASH) Project*1. This first hydrogen refueling station of the kind produces hydrogen from biogas generated in the process of treating household wastewater at the Chubu Wastewater Treatment Center and refuels fuel cell vehicles.

Although the study period ended at the end of FY2021, Fukuoka Green plans to restart the local-production, local-consumption hydrogen station operation from September 26 to expand hydrogen use toward a carbon-neutral society by transferring the facility from the national government to Fukuoka City.

In addition, Fukuoka Green signed a partnership agreement on August 19 with Kyushu University (President: Tatsuro Ishibashi) to encourage the use of Fukuoka City's green hydrogen.

With Kyushu University's knowledge and findings in hydrogen research, Fukuoka Green will promote the realization of a hydrogen society through the study of cost reduction and initiatives to increase hydrogen demand, in addition to the hydrogen station operation.

*1. An operational-scale demonstration research conducted as a partnership among private companies, local authorities, universities, and others on new technologies for sewerage.