In 2018, Chugai Ro Co., Ltd., with Toyota Motor Corporation, succeeded in developing the world’s first general-purpose industrial hydrogen burner. By changing the structure of the hydrogen combustion burner from the conventional burner, it became possible to slowly mix hydrogen and combustion air and suppress a local flame temperature rise. In addition, the amount of NOx produced can be reduced to the less level than the conventional 13A combustion. Furthermore, in order to reduce the environmental load of the industrial furnace, we also developed a radiant tube and a superheated steam generator for this general-purpose hydrogen burner. By the development of the hydrogen combustion type radiant tube burner, it was confirmed that the temperature distribution performance and safety are the same as those of the conventional product, and the fuel conversion compatibility from the conventional product is possible. It was discovered that the superheated steam generator has the property of being able to change the atmosphere inside the furnace to an oxidizing/reducing atmosphere by changing the combustion ratio of hydrogen and Oxygen. We believe that the development of these devices has made great strides toward the construction of a carbon-free society.

The interest in reduction of CO2 emission from air transport has been increasing for the global green sky in the future carbon neutral society. It is strongly expected that the hydrogen fuel that does not generate CO2 will be used in the aircraft. The innovative core-technology that is necessary for the realization of hydrogen aircraft is presented in this paper. Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. has been started the research under the Green Innovation Fund of Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan.

Tokyo Gas Engineering Solutions Corporation announced, World’s First Hydrogen Combustion Type Continuous Combustion Furnace “C-SERT-RHK-Nero” for lithium-ion battery electrode material. Achieve Zero Carbon for Making Lithium-ion Battery Electrodes Material, adapting special ceramic radiant tube burner.

Japanese steel industry has been working on the national project "CO₂ Ultimate Reduction System for Cool Earth 50 (COURSE50)” since 2008, which is one of national projects commissioned by NEDO. The goal of COURSE50 project is to mitigate CO₂ emissions from steelworks by about 30% by (1) technology for reducing iron ore to iron in blast furnace using hydrogen such as hydrogen contained in coke oven gas and (2) technology for capturing CO₂ contained in blast furnace gas using unused wasted heat in steelworks. Using the knowledge gained from the development of COURSE50 as a foothold, the Japan Iron and Steel Federation will take on the challenge to realize “zero-carbon steel”.

In the maritime sector, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) adopted a GHG reduction strategy in 2018, aiming to achieve zero emissions from international marine transportation as early as possible in this century. In addition, efforts to reduce NOx emissions from ships in urban areas, environmentally protected areas and large ports especially in Europe and the U.S. are gathering pace. In response to these movements, there are several projects that plan to build hydrogen fuel cell powered ships going into service in early 2020s. Also, several companies have announced their development and commercialization plans of maritime hydrogen fuel cell systems which adapt to the operating conditions and rules of ships. YANMAR has been working for the government-funded projects related to maritime fuel cells as well as shore-to-ship hydrogen refueling, and recently developed the hydrogen fuel cell demonstration boat with marinized TOYOTA MIRAI fuel cell units and hydrogen tanks. This article describes general requirements for hydrogen fuel cells to be applied for ships as well as maritime hydrogen fuel cells related activities in YANMAR.

It is important to decarbonize the industrial process heat for carbon-neutral society. Miura developed the hydrogen fuel boiler having high safety and low emissions for industrial use. At the present time, by-product hydrogen is used as fuel for the hydrogen fuel boiler in japan. However, renewable energy-based CO₂-free hydrogen is starting to be used for social and technology demonstration. Miura will contribute to the carbon-neutral society.

This article reports our photocatalyst development research by electron microscopy, including some concrete examples of micro- and nano- structure analysis of high-efficiency water splitting photocatalysts that are key to the solar hydrogen production, and the photocatalyst system at the current solar hydrogen production plant under development toward social implementation. In order to improve the performance of the photocatalyst, it is important to obtain the information on the microstructure of the photocatalyst plate and the nanostructure of the catalyst surface and cross section. We will discuss the importance of the electron microscopy characterization for such purpose.