POWER July 2022 - 35

HYDROGEN AWARD
POWER POINTS
Winning Attributes
✔ The Fukushima Hydrogen Energy
Research Field's (FH2R's) futureoriented
planning and technology
development began years before
global interest in hydrogen as a fuel
alternative ramped up.
✔ The project's objectives address a
key challenge, which is to ensure
hydrogen production technology can
be adjusted to balance supply and
demand in the power grid.
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)
sible for the management of the project,
as well as the overall hydrogen energy
system. Tohoku 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 to 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.
Namie's Exceptional Vision
Hard-hit by the 2011 Great Tohuku Earthquake
and the Fukushima Daiichi disasJuly
2022 | POWER
ter, 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 heat used by the facility.
The town is also developing an industrial
area that will consume renewable
power and pipeline-fed green hydrogen,
presumably from FH2R.
Part of that effort entails a study to
understand whether " it is possible to
achieve zero emission factories through
the introduction of hydrogen generators
and pure hydrogen fuel cells inside
and outside of the factories, and
through efficient transport and use of
clean hydrogen. " Other initiatives include
the introduction of a hydrogen-fueled
car model, a " low-cost " hydrogen
supply chain of mobile rack-equipped
fuel cells that could supply heat and
power to public facilities in Namie. Other
projects include a verification test of
a pole-mounted pipeline, a study to explore
the feasibility of installing " pure
hydrogen " fuel cells in households and
commercial facilities, and a program to
promote " hydrogen " tourism.
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✔ The project is specifically significant
for the town of Namie, which has
embarked on a reconstruction effort
rooted in the hydrogen economy.
A Big Step for Hydrogen Research
and Development
NEDO generally hails FH2R as a big
step for hydrogen. However, the research
agency is now planning a scaleup
of the alkaline electrolysis system
(as well as a 1.5-MW proton-exchange
membrane [PEM] system that is being
studied in Yamanashi Prefecture). These
efforts will be boosted with a government-furnished
planned investment
of more than $3 billion over the next
10 years, Eiji Ohira, director general of
NEDO's Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Group,
said in March.
NEDO in August 2021 accepted a
project led by Asahi Kasei and JGC
Holdings Corp. to jointly demonstrate
an alkaline water electrolysis system
on a scale of up to 100 MW and a
green chemical plant using hydrogen
from renewable energy. " Demonstration
and commercialization of the large
alkaline water electrolysis system on a
2-digit MW scale will utilize feedback
from FH2R in constituent technology
developments together with module
technology for parallel installation of
electrolyzers to meet market needs
from the perspectives of safety, durability,
performance, and cost, " Asahi Kasei
said. Asahi Kasei and JGC also plan
to jointly develop an integrated control
system for the green chemical plant to
control the amount of hydrogen supply
better and optimize plant operation
in the process supplied by hydrogen
feedstock originating from fluctuating
renewable energy. ■
-Sonal Patel is a POWER senior
associate editor.
35

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POWER July 2022

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