INPEX CORPORATION (INPEX) announced it has commenced front end engineering and design work preparations for a blue hydrogen production project(hereinafter “project”) with commercial prospects in Niigata Prefecture, Japan, that will leverage the company’s natural gas fields and existing natural gas infrastructure. INPEX has so far completed the concept development and feasibility studies for the project.
The project involves plans to newly construct a hydrogen production plant with an annual production capacity of approximately 100,000 tons in Niigata Prefecture that will source its raw materials from natural gas produced at the INPEX-operated Minami-Nagaoka Gas Field Nagaoka City, Niigata Prefecture) as well as liquefied natural gas (LNG) received at INPEX’s Naoetsu LNG Terminal (Joetsu City, Niigata Prefecture) mainly from Ichthys LNG. The produced hydrogen is expected to be marketed to customers in Niigata Prefecture and neighboring regions as fuel and raw material for power generation and heating applications.
Furthermore, CO2 generated during the hydrogen production process will be captured and injected (as a carbon capture and storage (CCS) initiative) into depleting gas fields in Niigata
Prefecture, enabling the hydrogen to be marketed and utilized as blue hydrogen.
As announced in INPEX Vision @2022 in February 2022, INPEX seeks to develop a hydrogen and CCS/CCUS business as one of its 5 net zero business initiatives. The company plans to
commercialize three or more projects in this field by around 2030 and aims to produce and supply 100 thousand tons or more of hydrogen/ammonia per year targeting an annual CO2
injection volume of 2.5 million tons or more in around 2030. This project is expected to play an important role in the achievement of these goals.
Image of INPEX
Press release https://tinyurl.com/2h55smsh
