Kitz Corporation announced that it has decided to launch packaging unit hydrogen station business and will begin sales and installation as follows.
In July 2012, Kitz entered the hydrogen station valves market, which supplies hydrogen gas as fuel to fuel cell vehicles. In particular, the performance of ultra-high-pressure ball valves for hydrogen stations developed with low pressure loss, excellent sealing performance and durability has been highly appreciated. As of the end of January 2020, most of the 112 commercial hydrogen stations in operation in Japan had adopted them.
METI’s roadmap calls for the installation of 160 hydrogen stations in 2020, 320 in 2025, and 900 in 2030, and further market expansion is expected in the future. Under such circumstances, Kitz constructed a hydrogen station using a small package unit at Nagasaka Plant as an in-house facility in Yamanashi Prefecture in March 2018, and have been carrying out demonstration of its operation and accumulating technology for approximately two years.
Based on the results of these efforts, Kitz decided to launch packaged unit type hydrogen station business, and developed our own package unit, which consolidates the main equipment required for hydrogen stations. Kitz will start sales and installation of the product in April 2020.
The sales of this product will be undertaken by Kitz Engineering Service, a wholly owned subsidiary, and Chiyoda Security Service, a cooperating company.
Kitz will propose package units that are compact, highly functional, excellent reliability, and short delivery times to the market, and contribute to the development of hydrogen infrastructure and the dissemination of hydrogen energy, the ultimate clean energy source. At the same time, Kitz will broadly demonstrate the high performance and superiority of its ball valves, which will lead to further growth in earnings.
Product Characteristics
The Product is the only in the world able to seal hydrogen gas of the 100MPa class. By fully adopting its own ball valves, which are able to control a large amount of flow, Kitz improve piping efficiency and make it more compact. In addition, two compressors, which play an important role in hydrogen supply, are installed in the 300N m3/h model, which is the core of Kitz sales, and each of these models has a function that can be completely independently operated. In addition, because the equipment is packaged in an integrated manner and shipped after finishing operational tests at the plant, Kitz believes that it will prevent initial trouble, greatly contribute to cost reductions at the construction site, and shorten the construction period.
Although the impact of the launch of product at the present time is immaterial, Kitz believe that it will contribute to enhancing the corporate value in the future.