Ambitious but controversial: Japan's new hydrogen project techxplore.com

posted by  banzaitokyo | 4 years ago in Science & Technology

The Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain is an experiment to see whether Japan can establish a durable supply of liquid hydrogen from Australia, to be burned to generate electricity.

The hydrogen will be produced and liquified in the Australian state of Victoria, where it will be extracted from a type of coal known as lignite.

This so-called brown coal currently effectively lacks a market, making it a potentially attractive, cheaper alternative to domestic hydrogen production for Japan, despite the extra costs of bringing it 9,000 kilometres (5,600 miles) by sea.