NEDO’s mission is promotion of research and development of energy, environmental and industrial technologies that contribute to the resolution of energy and global environmental problems and further enhance Japan’s industrial competitiveness. Fuel cell is one of the most important and promising technologies for CO2 reduction.

NEDO has been comprehensively carrying out technology development and demonstrative research projects related with hydrogen infrastructures for commercialization of fuel cell vehicles around 2015 in vigorous collaboration with industry, government and academia. Recent activities on fuel cell and hydrogen infrastructures are introduced in this report.

Fuel cell vehicle is the nearest one to an “ultimate eco-car” that offers solutions to energy and global warming issues. In this paper, the technologies of fuel cell, fuel cell vehicle(FCV) is described. The recent FCV has following significant features (1) Improved sub-zero startup (2) Great extended cruising range (3) Improved durability of the fuel cell stack. These performances of FCV are established close to the current gasoline powered vehicle. Last year, Japanese automotive company ‘(TOYOTA, NISSAN, HONDA) announced the introduction of FCV to the market in 2015.

Fuel cell and hydrogen technology is a key technology which is highly expected to be commercialized in order to construct the society to utilize the next-generation type energy. In an attempt to promote future spread of hydrogen energy, New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) is conducting development programs on system and element technologies to accomplish the low-cost and high-durability hydrogen stations, looking towards the establishment of a market for hydrogen supply infrastructure projected for 2015. In this paper, the situation of NEDO projects related to hydrogen infrastructure technology development is reported.

HySUT’s goal is commercialization of hydrogen supply business and FCVs by private companies. Our objective is to solve the issues of technology, consumer awareness, social acceptance and to assist business establishment through our demonstration program.

We acquired the demonstration data on durability, convenience and practicability of FCV hydrogen infrastructure through the operations of twelve hydrogen stations using FCVs and FC buses. In addition, with respect to remodeling and construction of our hydrogen stations scheduled in the fiscal year 2012, we carried out the activities such as clarification of the specifications, design of the equipment configurations, scheduling of construction and applications for permits and approval.

In order to achieve dissemination of fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen infrastructures, it is important to review the current regulations meeting the technical progress based on security. In this paper, the progress of reviewing regulations related to hydrogen supply infrastructures through collaboration among government/academia/industry is reported.

This paper will show current status and topics of standardization for fuel cell vehicles especially focused on safety of high pressurized hydrogen such as hydrogen tank on board, fueling connector and fueling protocol. In 2005 JARI S001 was published as the first regulation for hydrogen tank onboard, currently HFCV-gtr (global technical regulation) for hydrogen tank is discussed. Launching hydrogen market in 2015, standardization of fuelling interface becomes urgent issue. Fueling interface consists of fueling connector (hardware) and fueling protocol (software). It succeeded to make a consensus on 70 MPa connector geometry as ISO/DIS 17 268 in 2011. From point of view of safety and performance of fueling, the fueling protocol based on SAE J2601 becomes a hot issue between US, EU and Japan.

International Standardization in Hydrogen Technology is a key factor for realizing the Hydrogen Economy in the near future. ISO/TC197 (International Standardization Organization/Technical Committee 197, Hydrogen Technology) has 15 Working Group (WG) and its activities have been greatly activated in recent years. This is probably because hydrogen-related products are expected to distribute in commerce couple with the commercialization of fuel cells. To date, nine international standards (ISs) have been published, and seven ISs are under development. At present, Japan is acting as convenors in two WGs out of the eight. Japan is also preparing the submission of New Work Item Proposal (NWIP) on hydrogen dispenser components and its peripheral equipments for hydrogen fueling stations. Other countries such as Canada and China also have declared to submit NWIPs on several items. Further NWIP submission from Japan is desired to promote the profitable business for Japan.

Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) looks to the abilities of FCVs with an aim towards being at the forefront of low-carbon societies and disaster-proof cities. The following article will introduce TMG’s measures and future deployment of FCVs.

To reduce carbon dioxide emission and enhance energy security, we are promoting Next-Generation Vehicles (NGVs), like Electric Vehicles (EVs) and Fuel Cell Vehicles (FCVs). The government designated Saitama City as “Next-Generation Vehicles / Special Smart Energy Zone” in December, 2011. In this paper, I would like to introduce projects on this special zone and Hyper Energy Station which can provide various form of energy for NGVs.

It is aimed to form groups of excellent companies in the field of next generation technologies as well as realization of novel automotive society with reliable, safe and comfortable technologies through industrial revolution of existing automotive technologies in Aichi Prefecture.

We, Prefectural Government, will strongly assist innovative actions necessary for the planned kick-off of commercialization of fuel cell vehicles to general users in 2015.

Fukuoka Strategy Conference for Hydrogen Energy drew up the Initiative to Promote a Diffusion of Fuel Cell Vehicles in Northern Kyushu. It aims to foster and cluster FCV-related businesses and stimulate the local economy by taking a lead in creating a self-sustained market for FCVs and hydrogen supply infrastructure in Northern Kyushu through cooperation among industry, academia and government. It consists of three plans, the first one is to creat an initial market for FCVs by taking a lead in setting up hydrogen filling stations in Northern Kyushu, the second one is to accelerat the construction of hydrogen filling stations to encourage a widespread use of FCVs in Northern Kyushu by 2020, and the last one is to take the lead over other regions in Japan in initiating a self-sustained diffusion of FCVs and hydrogen supply infrastructure in Northern Kyushu by implementing measures to facilitate the introduction of FCVs through cooperation among industry, academia and government.

Nikko-city, a small and medium-sized city in Japan, has made an effort for facilitating the use of hydrogen energy. In the context of the actions taken by Nikko-city, this paper presents the issues that may arise when other similar-sized cities attempt to implement hydrogen energy. In suburban cities, it is required to encourage local residents to be receptive to hydrogen, to develop human resources who play a leading role of implementing hydrogen energy, and to obtain support from the government as well as related companies.

It is the general agreement that FCV will be commercialized in 2015 in major market in the world. Countries like US, Germany, Scandinavia, Korea and others are developing FCV and hydrogen station deployment plans toward 2015. This article summarizes the current activities in such deployment plans.

A transient method to measure gas-flow resistance has been developed for metal hydride fluidized bed and mixed fluidized bed of metal hydride and iron powder, which may be difficult for conventional one in which the gas-flow resistance has been measured under the steady state condition. The gas-flow resistances for metal hydride fluidized bed and mixed fluidized bed increase with increasing amount of hydrogen absorption into metal hydride.