Japanese energy firm Iwatani is stepping up efforts to strengthen its hydrogen business, to take advantage of expected increased demand for cleaner fuels in line with the country's decarbonisation drive towards net zero emissions by 2050.
Iwatani plans to spend ¥178bn ($1.25bn) on hydrogen-related projects over five years to the April 2027-March 2028 fiscal year. This accounts for around 38pc of ¥470bn allocated for overall investment in the company's five-year business plan released on 21 June.
The company expects to use ¥115bn to build its fourth domestic hydrogen production site in Japan's Kanto region and proceed with a project to make hydrogen from plastic waste. This also includes possible investment to build a hydrogen production facility in the US by 2027-28, although the company declined to outline further details.
Iwatani also aims to spend ¥30bn to develop a supply chain from overseas hydrogen projects in Australia and possibly in the US. Iwatani is currently carrying out a feasibility study for possible production of green hydrogen in Australia together with Japanese utility Kansai Electric Power and trading house Marubeni, Australia's Queensland state-owned utility Stanwell and Singapore's Keppel Infrastructure. The remaining ¥33bn would be allocated for expanding the number of hydrogen fueling stations in Japan and the US.
Iwatani expects its global hydrogen sales volumes to reach 30,000 t/yr in 2027-28 and 300,000 t/yr in 2030-31, up from 14,000 t/yr in 2022.
Expanded hydrogen operations, as well as efforts to spur decarbonisation in other sectors, will help Iwatani achieve a target to halve its domestic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2030-31 from 2019-20 levels. The company emitted around 219,000t of CO2 in 2019-20, including 78,000t of scope 1 and 140,000t of scope 2 emissions.
