JAPAN'S HYDROGEN STATION

PLATTS - 25 Aug 2020 - Japan's ENEOS and JERA jointly launched Aug. 25 one of the country's largest hydrogen stations on the site of the latter's operated Oi thermal power plant in central Tokyo, with the utility supplying feedstock city gas for the production of hydrogen.

"The Oi station is the largest-scale hydrogen station in Japan, with double [the capacity] that of a normal station," ENEOS' executive officer Tomoo Shiota told an online press conference Aug. 25.

With its hydrogen production capacity of 600 Nm3/h, the Tokyo Oi Hydrogen Station can fill about 10 fuel cell vehicles or six fuel cell buses in an hour, Shiota said.

The station produces hydrogen using city gas from Ohgishima City Gas Supply Co. and supplies hydrogen to fuel cell passenger cars and buses introduced by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

As of Aug. 25, the Oi station has become the 42nd commercial hydrogen station operated by ENEOS in Japan, while it was JERA's first involvement in the establishment of a hydrogen station.

With its delivery facility, the station will not only ship hydrogen to other ENEOS hydrogen stations in the Tokyo metropolitan area, but is also looking at a possibility of becoming a hydrogen supply base for fuel cell trucks in the future.

When asked about the outlook for Oi station's procurement of city gas from Ohgishima City Gas Supply, Shiota declined to give an exact volume, except to say that it will procure city gas feedstocks entirely from OCGS.

Procuring LNG

OCGS, in which JERA has a 69% stake, with ENEOS (16%) and Osaka Gas (15%), started commercial operations for producing city gas and supply facility with a calorific value adjustment capacity of 270 mt/h in the Ohgishima district of Kawasaki city in Tokyo Bay in April.

JERA procures about 1 million mt/year of LNG for OCGS, which produces around 1.1 million mt, or 1.35 billion cubic meter/year, of city gas by blending natural gas and LPG, according to a JERA spokesman.

JERA and ENEOS use part of the city gas supply from OCGS as feedstock to produce hydrogen at the Oi station.

JERA currently uses its equity portion of city gas supply from OCGS mainly as fuel for its 1.14 GW Shinagawa thermal power plant in Tokyo, where Tokyo Gas had been the sole supplier until the startup of OCGS, the spokesman said.

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