Commencement of PoC for Green Hydrogen Production in Australia and Indonesia

Marubeni Corporation (“Marubeni”) will start production of economical green hydrogen (“green hydrogen”) in South Australia (hereinafter, “SA”), transportation of hydrogen by metal hydride (*1) tanks to Indonesia and utilization of hydrogen through fuel cells (hereinafter, the “PoC” or Proof of Concept). The PoC has been adopted under the Japanese Ministry of the Environment’s “Financing Programme for Joint Crediting Mechanism Model Projects (hereinafter, “JCM”) in FY2021 (*2)”.

Australia is aiming to realize a low carbon society and a significant number of renewable power stations have been installed in its electricity market. However, such an increase in renewable energy is forcing the market to face the necessity of the improving grid management and the issue of the grid’s surplus power which is not being well utilized.

In light of these circumstances, in this PoC, Marubeni is planning, in SA, to achieve economical and stable green hydrogen production and improve grid management by making effective use of the grid’s surplus power from renewable energy by operating an energy management system (hereinafter, “EMS”) (*3) which optimizes the electrolyzer and battery functions to better deal with weather disruptions and spot power prices, etc. Green hydrogen produced in SA is going to be stored in metal hydride tanks, transported to Java Island in Indonesia (a JCM partner country) and converted to power and heat by using fuel cells which will be newly installed in the industrial park in the suburbs of Jakarta. Such power and heat from the fuel cells are planned to be utilized in the park. Marubeni will aim to contribute to decarbonization which is one of the priority items in Indonesia’s national mid-term development plan.

Through the PoC, Marubeni will explore the future possibility of creating hydrogen-related value chains and will aim to achieve Japan’s greenhouse gas (hereinafter, “GHG”) emissions reduction targets by utilizing JCM. Other than this PoC, Marubeni has been involved in other hydrogen-related feasibility study projects in Australia, such as a hydrogen integrated supply chain project in Victoria and a green ammonia project in Tasmania. Marubeni will continue to aim to create and achieve a sustainable society where GHG emissions are reduced through projects which are environmentally friendly and contribute to decarbonization.