Germany’s Siemens Energy is working with Japanese chemicals company Toray on the development of large-scale proton-exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysers for green hydrogen production in Japan.

The project will receive Japanese government funding from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and from the publicly owned New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization.

Toray says it will provide Siemens with its proprietary hydrocarbon electrolyte membranes for the project.

Siemens is rapidly scaling up the size of the electrolysers it offers to the market, with the next key targets being 100MW by around 2023 and 1GW by 2028, as it looks to lower green hydrogen production costs.

22mn t/yr – McKinsey estimate of Japan’s hydrogen demand in 2050

“The two companies will work together to promote the installation and demonstration of these membranes in Siemens Energy's large industrial scale PEM water electrolyser,” Toray says in a statement.

“The resulting green hydrogen can not only be used for large-scale power generation and other electric power applications, but also for sector coupling such as heat, transport, and industrial applications.”

Japan’s government and private sector are ramping up efforts to establish a green hydrogen supply chain, both domestically and via imports from producing countries such as Australia.

Earlier this year, the government included the deployment of hydrogen for power generation in its energy strategy planning for the first time.

Management consultancy McKinsey estimates Japan’s hydrogen demand could rise to 22mn t/yr by 2050 from less than 2mn t/yr today, with about a third used for power generation.

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Author: Stuart Penson