STRATEGY FOCUS 3 :
Incorporating Carbon Neutrality
into Growth

The issue of climate change is not only a Materiality for us, a company that consumes a lot of electricity, but also a major business opportunity.

Based on industrial gas, our core business, we have developed over many years technologies and businesses that contribute to low-carbon and decarbonization, such as CO2 capture, hydrogen production, and methane, as well as management resources such as ties with local communities, a customer base, and a logistics network. By capitalizing on these resources with regional characteristics, our Group will work to build a “resource-recycling energy supply model of local production for local consumption” that creates clean energy from locally generated waste, and stays committed to solving social issues.

Our Group has been working to build a regional recycling supply chain in which unused biogas generated from livestock manure is processed into liquefied biomethane (LBM), an alternative fuel to liquefied natural gas (LNG), and consumed within the region. It is a business model that solves social issues by providing clean, sustainable, domestically produced energy in dairy farming areas, and also reducing odors and water pollution caused by livestock manure.

This is an initiative unique to our Group that combines our core industrial gas technology and energy business know-how with Hokkaido’s regional business infrastructure and logistics network, and is scheduled to be commercialized in FY2024. We will handle LBM as a new energy product and invest some 60 billion yen over the next 10 years to implement it in society.

The world has yet to establish a technology for low-cost, low-energy CO2 capture from low-concentration flue gas emitted from small- to mid-scale factories such as boilers and industrial furnaces.　We made this possible with “ReCO2 STATION,” a compact CO2 recovery and utilization system. It was developed by using our proprietary adsorption separation technology, based on our long experience in gas production/engineering technology and as a manufacturer of carbon dioxide gas and dry ice. The collected CO2 can be turned into dry ice on site, and we are building a new carbon dioxide gas supply chain of the “local production for local consumption” model.

“ReCO2 STATION” is designed for use with combustion exhaust gas with a CO2 concentration of about 10% from industrial furnaces and boilers. It is also a container-sized device that can compress CO2 to produce liquefied carbon dioxide gas, which can then be solidified to produce even dry ice.

Our Group is a leading manufacturer of dry ice, which is used to cool and preserve food and other products, but in recent years, suppliers of CO2, the raw material for dry ice, are decreasing due to the closure of domestic refineries and steel mills. In the future, we plan to build a locally produced and consumed dry ice supply network which captures CO2 and produces dry ice within the region. We also promote “carbon recycling,” in which the collected CO2 is regarded as a “resource” and reused as a raw material or fuel.

Using hydrogen, which does not emit CO2 during combustion, is one of the keys to decarbonization. We are taking the lead in building a hydrogen value chain in the U.S., where decarbonization-related measures are rapidly advancing, by utilizing the wealth of knowledge and technology accumulated as an industrial gas manufacturer in the production, storage, transportation, and use of hydrogen gas. At the same time, we are working with local governments and industry to contribute to carbon neutrality by utilizing our nationwide bases in Japan.