POWER and RE+ Tech Supp September 2022 - 6

RENEWING THE PROMISE OF CLEAN ENERGY
HYDROGEN
1. The Fukushima Hydrogen Energy Research Field (FH2R) is a large-scale power-to-gas
system, whose produced hydrogen will be used to power stationary fuel cell batteries
and to support other hydrogen-powered applications. A key objective is to test a hydrogen
energy management system to achieve the optimal combination of production
and storage of hydrogen and power grid supply-demand balancing adjustments without
using storage batteries. Courtesy: New Energy and Industrial Technology Development
Organization (NEDO)
Power Co. Inc. and major gas and energy
firm Iwatani Corp.
Backed by the government's 5th
Basic Energy Plan, which targeted
P2G technology for storing and using
hydrogen energy, FH2R gained specific
significance as a national project.
Construction of the project kicked off
swiftly afterward in the town of Namie,
Fukushima Prefecture, in July 2018,
and by March 2020, construction was
declared complete.
Significant in Its Own Right
For the past two years, FH2R has consistently
been ranked as one of the
world's largest projects of its kind. According
to project participants, FH2R
uses a 20-MW solar PV array built on
a 180,000-square-meter site along with
grid electricity to power a single-stack
10-MW-class electrolyzer. Its developers
say it can produce, store, and supply
up to 1,200 Nm 3 /hr of hydrogen
at rated power operation (Figure 1).
The facility's alkaline water electrolysis
system was designed and
built by a subsidiary of Asahi Kasei,
a 1931-founded multinational Japanese
chemical firm. Asahi Kasei Engineering
said it received the order
for its Aqualyzer electrolysis system
from Toshiba in 2017. The electrolyzer
uses chlor-alkali membrane electrolysis,
which is an established industrial
process through which chlorine,
caustic soda, and hydrogen are produced
simultaneously, using brine
and electricity. " After its installation
in November 2019, several trial operations
of the system were performed
to confirm that the product hydrogen
met the required quality standards,
with hydrogen supply operation beginning
in March [2020], " Asahi Kasei
said. Project participants also tested
the system's performance in response
to fluctuating power input.
Toshiba, which served as the project's
lead engineering, procurement,
and construction (EPC) provider, is today
responsible for the management
of the project, as well as the overall
hydrogen energy
6 Supplement to POWER & RE+ 2022
Electric manages the power grid control
system, and Iwatani handles the
storage, supply of hydrogen, and the
hydrogen demand and supply forecasting
system.
According to Toshiba, the system
has mostly performed as designed.
" The FH2R system manages the production
and storage of hydrogen
according to the demand forecasts
made by the hydrogen demand and
supply forecasting system, and adjusts
the amount of hydrogen produced by
the hydrogen production unit to keep
demand and supply balanced in the
power grid, " it said. In light of recent
electricity market reforms, meanwhile,
project participants last year added a
function to " provide appropriate control
in the case of a reverse power flow
in the solar photovoltaic system as
part of our research aimed at improving
the utilization of the hydrogen energy
system as a means of electricity
supply-demand balancing. "
That aspect will be necessary for two
of the project's most crucial objectives:
to establish business models for hydrogen
utilization and hydrogen sales
" in order to realize demand-based
production of hydrogen, " NEDO has
said. Both objectives are already being
tested and verified in a wide array of
programs spearheaded by leaders in
Namie.
system. Tohoku
Namie's Exceptional Vision
Hard-hit by the 2011 Great Tohuku
Earthquake and the Fukushima Daiichi
disaster, Namie has embarked
on a visionary reconstruction effort.
In November 2020, it announced its
full support for the FH2R " large-scale
experiment " to establish a hydrogen-powered
society. The municipal
government has committed to utilizing
hydrogen energy in commerce,
agriculture, transportation, and education.
Some program examples include
a 2020-opened roadside station that
uses hydrogen produced at FH2R. A
3.5-kW Toshiba " pure hydrogen " fuel
cell installed at the roadside station
provides a portion of the electrical
POWER and RE+ Tech Supp September 2022

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