※ Affiliations and titles are as of the end of the research activity.

Strategic Objects

Creation of core technologies for innovative energy carrier utilization aimed at the transport, storage, and use of renewable energy

Research Supervisor

Koichi Eguchi(Professor, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University)

Outline

This research area, looking ahead to a hydrogen energy society making stable and efficient use of renewable energy, aims to create fundamental and core technology for efficient conversion of renewable energy to energy carriers that store and transport chemical energy, and for extraction and use of electrical energy, hydrogen, and motive power, etc., from the energy carriers. The research to be carried out to these ends will fuse different fields such as electrochemistry, catalytic chemistry, materials science, and process engineering, without regard to the walls and fences between fields. Examples of the research topics are electrosynthesis, catalyzed synthesis, and electrode and reaction field materials enabling use of renewable energy such as wind power and sunlight for efficient direct synthesis of energy carriers, and synthesis of energy carriers by thermochemical processes using solar heat or the heat of the earth (geothermal energy). Also included in this research area are direct fuel cells, enabling electrical energy to be extracted by using energy carriers as fuel, and dehydrogenation technology for efficient dehydrogenation of energy carriers at low temperatures.

In this research, it is recommended that pioneering studies be carried out contributing to the synthesis and use of new energy carriers superior in hydrogen content, conversion efficiency, and safety to organic hydrides and ammonium, on which research is already under way. However, research on these existing energy carriers can be taken up in this research area if it covers original technology based on new ideas, with different methods for synthesis, use, storage and transport than those assumed up to now.

Research Area Advisors

・Ken-ichi Aika
Professor Emeritus, Tokyo Institute of Technology

・Yoshimi Okada
Principal Researcher, Technology Development Unit/Hydrogen Supply Chain Development Unit, CHIYODA CORPORTION

・Natsuko Sakai
Deputy Director-General, Research and Innovation Promotion Headquarters, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology

・Kenji Murata
Exective Research Fellow, The Institute of Applied Energy

・Atsushi Tsutsumi
Project Professor, The University of Tokyo

・Shigehito Deki
Professor Emeritus, Kobe University

・Takao Masuda
Vice Dean, Professor, Hokkaido University

・Shinichi Matsumoto
Professional Partner, Frontier Research Center, TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION

・Masahiko Mizuno
Group Manager, SUMITOMO CHEMICAL Co., Ltd.

Year Started : 2013

Year Started : 2014

New Oxyhydride Catalysts for Ammonia Synthesis

Research Director:
Yoji Kobayashi(Assistant Professor/Lecturer, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University)

Creation of Sunlight-Driven Photocatalysts for Hydrogen Peroxide Synthesis from Water and Molecular Oxygen

Research Director:
Yasuhiro Shiraishi(Associate Professor, Research Center for Solar Energy Chemistry, Osaka University)

Development of direct formic acid fuel cell realizing the alternative to the polymer electrolyte fuel cell

Research Director:
Takuya Tsujiguchi(Associate Professor, School of Science and Engineering, Kanazawa University)

Electrosynthesis of organic hydride at controlled liquid-liquid-solid three phase interface

Research Director:
Mitsuru Wakisaka(Associate professor, Faculty of engineering, Toyama Prefectural University)

Year Started : 2015

Creation of innovative precious metal-free and highly efficient hydrogen production materials for promotion of hydrogen station

Research Director:
Yoshikazu Ito(Associate Professor, Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences, University of Tsukuba)

Clarification of ignition performance improvement effect by mixing combustion of low ignitability solid fuel and ammonia for prevalence of ammonia as an energy carrier

Research Director:
Nozomu Hashimoto(Associate Professor, Division of Mechanical and Space Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Hokkaido University)

Development of Membrane Integrated-Photocatalyst Sheets for Artificial Photosynthesis

Research Director:
Tsutomu Minegishi(Associate Professor, Department of Chemical System Engineering, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo)

Development of Multi-functional Metal Catalysts for Highly Efficient Hydrogen Production from Formic Acid

Research Director:
Kohsuke Mori(Associate Professor, Division of Materials and Manufacturing Science, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University)