Air Products (LeHigh Valley, Pa.; www.airproducts.com) is part of a consortium that inaugurated the Shikaoi Hydrogen Farm, a hydrogen-production supply facility derived from livestock biomass waste located in Hokkaido, Japan. Air Products provided its hydrogen fueling technology for this project as part of the company’s collaboration with Nippon Steel and Sumikin Pipeline & Engineering Co. to develop the retail automotive hydrogen fueling infrastructure in Japan. In addition, Air Products has provided its proprietary membrane technology for the biogas purification process.
The Shikaoi Hydrogen Farm utilizes agricultural wastes which are anaerobically digested to create a supply of raw biogas. This biogas is upgraded to a purified supply of biomethane using Air Products’ PRISM PB Membrane separators. The biomethane is then used as a feedstock to manufacture renewable hydrogen on-site, which generates heat, power and vehicle fuel. This is the first facility in Japan to use agricultural wastes as the source to manufacture hydrogen.
The Shikaoi Hydrogen Farm is a five-year business project entrusted by the Ministry of the Environment in Japan for low-carbon hydrogen technology. The project demonstrates an integrated hydrogen energy-based supply chain, leveraging local renewable energy sources for hydrogen generation, storage, transportation and use. The hydrogen is returned to local livestock farmers and neighboring facilities as a source of renewable energy and fuel. Hokkaido’s first hydrogen-vehicle fueling station is installed at the Farm, which delivers fuel to hydrogen-powered vehicles and forklifts.
Additional companies contributing to the project are Air Water Inc. and Kajima Corporation.
Air Products’ SmartFuel hydrogen fueling stations provide hydrogen fueling at 35 Mpa (5,000 psi) and 70 Mpa (10,000 psi) in compliance with JPEC (Japan Petroleum Energy Center) S0003. Use of the company’s fueling technology is increasing and is already used in approximately 1,500,000 hydrogen fills per year.