Honda, Tokuyama, Mitsubishi try effective reuse of fuel-cell systems from FCEVs

Honda Motor Co., Tokuyama Corporation, and Mitsubishi Corporation have announced a joint demonstration to operate a data center using by-product hydrogen and a stationary fuel-cell power station designed to reuse hydrogen fuel-cell systems from fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) in Japan. 

The demonstration project was proposed to and adopted by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) as one of the projects for the "Development of Technologies for Realizing a Hydrogen Society / Development of Technologies for Regional Hydrogen Utilization". 

It will be conducted in Shunan City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan using by-product hydrogen produced by Tokuyama's salt water electrolysis business to supply electricity to a distributed data center operated by Mitsubishi from a stationary fuel cell power station that Honda will develop based on the assumption of reusing fuel cells from FCEVs.

The companies will explore the potential of reusing automotive fuel-cell systems in a stationary application. The objective of the project is to reduce the economic burden on customers installing and operating stationary fuel-cell systems, which will contribute to the decarbonization of the electric power.

With the advancement of technologies that require large-volume data processing such as AI or autonomous driving, power demand for data centers is expected to increase significantly. Using by-product hydrogen and fuel-cells to power distributed data centers, the companies believe that the data centers can be decarbonized effectively.

Based on the evaluation and inputs from the project, the companies will look into the feasibility of the installation and expansion of data centers using clean power in the region, as well as explore further business opportunities both inside and outside Japan.