Japanese company Sumitomo Rubber Industries has begun producing carbon-neutral tyres using hydrogen in Shirakawa City, Fukushima prefecture.
The locally supplied H2 is burned in a boiler to produce 200°C steam, which is then used in a chemical process that requires heat and pressure, the company says.
The H2 used at the plant is produced in three local towns and cities, including green hydrogen produced from solar power at the 10MW FH2R project in Namie Town, which was evacuated following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster and known in Japan as a ghost town.
It is not clear if the hydrogen made from the other two locations, in Koriyama City and Iwaki City, are made from renewable energy or unabated natural gas.
“After making tires made in Fukushima in Shirakawa, our challenge is to spread this technology to the world,” said Bunichi Yamashita, general manager of sustainability management at Sumitomo.
The company, which was the fifth-largest tyre manufacturer in the world in 2022, plans to expand the use of hydrogen at its other tyre factories in Japan.
It would almost certainly be more efficient to use renewable energy directly to produce 200°C steam — using heat pumps, electric boilers, infrared heaters, or microwave heaters — rather than burning green H2, but Japan is keen to build up a ‘hydrogen economy’ and usage of H2 is encouraged.
