Japan to fund $892 mln to help develop low-emission fuels

Furukawa Electric Co

19/04/2022 12:15

TOKYO, April 19 (Reuters) - Japan's state-backed New Energy
and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) said
on Tuesday it will allocate 114.5 billion yen ($892 million) to
help develop new fuels such as synthetic ones that emit lower
carbon dioxide (CO2).
    The financial aid comes as part of the country's 2 trillion
yen ($15.6 billion) green innovation fund to promote development
of cleaner energy and technology to help the world's fifth
biggest CO2 emitter achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. 
    The projects to be funded include development of synthetic
liquefied fuels, made by combining hydrogen with CO2 extracted
from the factories or the atmosphere, sustainable aviation fuels
(SAFs), synthetic methane and synthetic liquefied petroleum gas
(LPG).
    Nearly half of the budget will go to the synthetic fuel
project by Japan's biggest refiner Eneos, a unit of Eneos
Holdings Inc  5020.T .
    Eneos aims to complete development of the technology by
around 2030, with an aim to commercialize the fuels before 2040,
Kazuaki Hayasaka, general manager at Eneos' fuels & chemicals
research centre, told reporters on Tuesday.    
    Synthetic fuels provide an environmentally-friendly means to
power combustion engine cars, but producing them is costly and
requires large amounts of renewable energy to make them
carbon-neutral.
    "The biggest technical challenge is to increase the
efficiency of the manufacturing processes," Hayasaka said.
    "We need to incorporate the expensive raw materials --
hydrogen and CO2 -- into synthetic fuels with as little waste as
possible," he said.
    Other projects to be supported by NEDO include Idemitsu
Kosan's  5019.T  SAF development, two different synthetic
methane projects by Osaka Gas Co Ltd  9532.T  and Tokyo Gas Co
Ltd  9531.T  and Furukawa Electric's  5801.T  synthetic LPG
development.
    
($1 = 128.3500 yen)

 (Reporting by Yuka Obayashi, editing by Ed Osmond)
 ((Yuka.Obayashi@thomsonreuters.com; +813-4520-1265;))