The University of Tokyo, Queensland Institute of Technology, JXTG Energy Co., Ltd., and Chiyoda Corporation have succeeded in the world's first technical verification to produce "CO2-free hydrogen" at low cost.
Conventionally, when storing and transporting hydrogen, it has been necessary to temporarily store hydrogen generated by water electrolysis in a tank and convert it into methylcyclohexane (hereinafter referred to as MCH), which is a kind of "organic hydride".Organic hydride is a liquid at normal temperature and pressure, easy to handle, and suitable for storing and transporting hydrogen, but its manufacturing process and equipment cost have been problems.
In this verification, we succeeded in producing MCH without hydrogen by using a production method called "organic hydride electrolytic synthesis method" that directly produces MCH from water and toluene.By significantly simplifying the process, it is possible to reduce the equipment cost related to MCH manufacturing by about 50% in the future.
Furthermore, this time, by using the electricity of photovoltaic power generation as the electric power required for MCH production, we have realized low-cost production of "CO2-free hydrogen" that does not emit CO2 during production.
This verification was carried out with the participation of companies and universities with the technology and knowledge necessary for each process in social collaboration research aimed at building a hydrogen supply chain sponsored by the University of Tokyo.First, Queen's Land Institute of Technology, which has a highly efficient tracking photovoltaic power generation system in Australia, generated electricity, and JXT G Energy used the electricity to produce MCH by organic hydride electrolytic synthesis technology. The MCH was transported to Japan, and Chiyoda Corporation, which has hydrogen extraction technology, was in charge of dehydrogenation from the MCH.
With the success of this technical verification, the company plans to work on the development of this manufacturing method for social implementation with the aim of realizing a hydrogen society and preventing global warming.
