REVISTA DYNA NEW TECHNOLOGIES

Entitled "Re-examining Japan's Hydrogen Strategy: Beyond the Fantasy of a Hydrogen Society," it has provided a strong critique of the road travelled since 2017, the large expenditures made, the poor results obtained and the mistakes made, especially in the orientation on the areas to be applied this new energy vector.
In 2017, Japan was a pioneer in creating a national strategy envisaging a "hydrogen society", with such futuristic ideas as Toyota's Woven City, in the development of fuel cells for vehicles or in hydrogen canisters for domestic use, little progress has been made in practice, despite having revised it several times and it remains one of the countries with the highest emissions, since its electricity production was drastically reduced by the Fukushima accident.
That shortage of electric power and the reduced boost to renewable generation has caused Japan to think preferentially about hydrogen production from natural gas (gray hydrogen) and not to address a sufficient hydrolizer industry. The report's criticisms point to three main errors:
- The selection of low-priority applications. Green hydrogen is a very low energy carrier compared to direct electrification, so it should be targeted at uses that cannot be decarbonized in other, simpler ways. Electric vehicles and heat pumps for domestic use are more advanced, economical and efficient.
- Hydrogen production based on natural gas or even with CO2 capture (blue hydrogen), for the sole purpose of rapidly advancing its use, is not a reason to delay the development of solar or wind energy: these should be given priority before turning to a hydrogen economy with higher emissions and lower efficiency. Importing hydrogen, which has also been considered, does not seem to be a good solution to the global problem.
- In Japan, the production of green hydrogen is much more expensive than that of gray hydrogen, in addition to its limited in-house electrolysis technology. This suggests that even if gray hydrogen is used initially, the tendency should be to cover industrial applications with very high emissions in order to obtain some environmental benefit.
The report concludes that Japan must refocus its hydrogen strategy on its decarbonization strategy, focusing on green hydrogen and defining which applications are really needed to achieve decarbonization. Only then will it be able to play a major role in the global green hydrogen business by leveraging the expertise of Japanese companies.