Hydrogen energy: new industrial chair

Air Liquide has just started a three-year collaboration with the University of Kyushu, Japan, by subsidizing an industrial chair to accelerate the introduction of hydrogen as a clean alternative energy vector.

Hydrogen is one solution that provides a short-term response to the challenges of sustainable transport: reducing greenhouse gas emissions, local pollution in our cities and dependence on fuels from fossil resources. In this field of technological development for sustainable energy, and especially for hydrogen, Japan is one of the leading countries in the world.

Initiated by the Group's R&D teams, the Chair will be headed in a new research department at the University of Kyushu (Japan). The work will focus on materials used for storing and using hydrogen and will enable international standards to be adapted. It will also reduce costs right across the Hydrogen Energy chain.

Air Liquide's Research and Development is already working on innovative solutions to produce, distribute and store hydrogen, and on fuel cells and filling stations. Air Liquide Japan also participates in a project to demonstrate the "green" hydrogen production chain, namely providing a 350-bar hydrogen filling station.

Air Liquide is already involved in two other chairs in the fields of Energy and the Environment. Launched in July 2010, the collaboration with the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières (UQTR) will improve the purification, storage and distribution technologies and reduce hydrogen transport costs. In France, the chair of teaching and research on CO2 capture, transport and storage, was signed in June 2009 with Mines ParisTech and the town of Le Havre. Lasting initially 5 years, it will enable a dozen theses to be funded.

Air Liquide in Japan

Established in 1907 in Japan, as Japan first industrialized, Air Liquide now serves 15,000 customers across the country, particularly in Electronics, thanks to its 2,600 employees. The Group also has a Research and Technology Centre in Tsukuba (near Tokyo) and an Engineering center in Harima (near Kobe). Japan serves as a technology & research base for Air Liquide in Asia and beyond.