Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd. is pleased to announce that, with the backing and support of the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO, a national research and development agency), the company’s major tire factory in the City of Shirakawa (Fukushima Prefecture) will begin a proof of concept in August with the ultimate aim of harnessing hydrogen energy for tire manufacturing.
Tire manufacturing requires the application of high-temperature, high-pressure heat energy in the form of steam, which is difficult to produce using only electric power due to various technical limitations. Thus, Sumitomo Rubber Group has turned attention to hydrogen as a promising energy source for ongoing efforts to achieve carbon neutrality. The company therefore selected Shirakawa Factory as a pilot site to demonstrate hydrogen’s potential while taking advantage of existing programs to harness hydrogen energy that are already underway in Fukushima Prefecture. This plan was submitted to NEDO, who selected it for backing and support.
With support from NEDO, the Shirakawa Factory will conduct a proof of concept that involves harnessing hydrogen energy in certain tire production processes from August 2021 through February 2024. Thereafter, the company plans to expand the use of hydrogen energy throughout Shirakawa Factory and, ultimately, to other group factories in Japan and overseas.
This proof of concept will involve harnessing hydrogen energy for production processes involved in NEO-T01 (a proprietary tire manufacturing system first established in 2012) while studying the challenges involved in maintaining continuous production using hydrogen energy. Through the process of identifying and enacting countermeasures to overcome various technical challenges, such as how to control nitrogen oxide emissions when using a hydrogen boiler, the project aims to demonstrate the effectiveness of hydrogen as a safe and clean energy source to eventually replace the conventional energy sources currently used in tire manufacturing.
At the same time, with an eye toward the increased demand for hydrogen following the completion of this proof of concept, the company will also be examining various possibilities for producing hydrogen using electric power generated from other renewable energy sources as well as for the procurement of carbon-free hydrogen as part of our efforts to minimize CO2 emissions throughout a tire’s lifecycle.