A Japanese consortium to realise a hydrogen society
The first step to release hydrogen society would be introducing fuel cell vehicles.
Fukuoka City and Toyota Motor Corporation have signed a partnership agreement aiming to realise a hydrogen society.
Both parties will work closely with Commercial Partnership Technologies Corporation (CJPT) to promote a wide range of collaborative initiatives to realise hydrogen society. As a first step, they have commenced discussions regarding the introduction of fuel cell vehicles.
All partners will discuss a range of other hydrogen-related topics, such as developing and using vehicles that can support social infrastructure and creating logistics models for them, using hydrogen energy at resident-centred facilities and events, and revising the regulations required for realising a hydrogen society.
They are aiming to kick start with the use of fuel cell vehicles for school meal delivery trucks and the city’s garbage trucks.
All three parties will work together to develop and verify technologies related to producing, transporting, and using hydrogen. By helping to expedite the implementation of these technologies, the aim is to build a society in which hydrogen plays a major role. They also plan to actively engage in initiatives that contribute to the realisation of carbon neutrality in Japan and worldwide.
Fukuoka City has focused on the potential of hydrogen energy from an early stage and initiated the Hydrogen Leader City Project. As part of the project, the city launched the first initiative to produce hydrogen from public household sewage and supply it to fuel cell vehicles. It was also the first city in Japan to undertake various verification tests for trucks and motorcycles equipped with fuel cell technologies.
Toyota has sought to broaden customer choice through sales of its Mirai fuel cell vehicle, development of hydrogen-engine vehicles, and promotion of commercial vehicles in collaboration with CJPT, etc.