Yamaha Motor to build new hydrogen verification testing facility

From 2025, the company will begin development and verification of technologies and techniques for melting aluminum alloy using hydrogen gas, as well as comprehensive verification testing for requisite facilities, equipment, and more. By the end of 2026, it plans to complete the development of technologies for melting aluminum alloy and heat-treating cast parts using hydrogen gas and to gradually implement them at domestic and international casting factories from 2027 onward.

This verification testing is part of Yamaha Motor’s efforts to minimise Scope 1 CO₂ emissions across the life cycles of products. In the manufacture of cast parts for motorcycles, outboard motors, and other products, natural gas and other fossil fuels are currently used to provide the thermal energy required for melting aluminum alloys. In the company's search for alternative energy sources, it judged that electrification is not suited the melting process in terms of energy efficiency, as it requires a large amount of heat, so it turned attention to hydrogen energy, which Yamaha Motor is already studying as an option for reducing Scope 3 emissions.

The verification testing itself will include examining the influence hydrogen gas has on quality and developing temperature control techniques using hydrogen burners. Yamaha is also considering the introduction of equipment for producing green hydrogen and methanation equipment (through joint research with Shizuoka University) to produce e-methane without needing external heat sources. Yamaha Motor will work to develop equipment for producing hydrogen gas at low cost as well as technologies for capturing and reusing the CO₂ in exhaust gases.

Read the article online at: https://www.globalhydrogenreview.com/hydrogen/12072024/yamaha-motor-to-build-new-hydrogen-verification-testing-facility/