(26c) JHFC (Japan Hydrogen and Fuel Cell) Demonstration Project – Current Status Report

JHFC ( Japan Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Demonstration ) Project originally started in 2002 as a Japanese national project to demonstrate the effectiveness of fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen infrastructure for them. Its first phase lasted for 4 years and succeeded by its second phase which was expected to last for 5 years. Now the project entered into the last fiscal year. Under the JHFC project, 14 hydrogen refueling stations are operated and approximately 60 FCV's are on the public road. Up to the end of 2009, the cumulative driving distance reached 1.4 million kilometers and 29 tons of hydrogen had been refueled. In this paper, the author describes the results obtained from the project mainly in the field of hydrogen infrastructures. It includes various lessons learned, technical data and so on. Unfortunately the market introduction of FCV's seems to require a few more years. The Japanese government and the related industrial organizations began to consider the next demonstration project. Although the project scheme in the future is not clearly fixed yet, the author will try to introduce the upcoming project.