JAEA and MHI start H2 production demonstration program

The Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) have started a demonstration program for hydrogen production using a high-temperature engineering test reactor for CO2 neutrality.

The Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, part of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) contracted JAEA and MHI to conduct this H2 production demonstration project. From this fiscal year, it initiated a program to produce hydrogen using a High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR).

Under this program, a newly built hydrogen production plant will be connected to an HTTR owned by JAEA. The goal is to prove the technology for hydrogen production using the high-temperature heat obtained from the HTTR.

The determination of specific renovations necessary to connect the hydrogen production plant, along with the licensing procedure, equipment modifications, and testing, will take place in stages.

JAEA and MHI will also examine the feasibility of enlarging certain components to allow for large-scale hydrogen production and explore CO2-free hydrogen production technologies in combination with high-temperature gas-cooled reactors.

Through this program, JAEA and MHI will prove this technology, and realize stable, large-scale, carbon-free H2 production.

Achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 will require decarbonisation in the energy sector, as well as such industries as transportation. The use of hydrogen energy is to play a significant part in this effort; the Japanese government has included the establishment of elemental technologies for hydrogen production in its Green Growth Strategy.