Kawasaki Heavy Industries Begins Kawasaki LH2 Terminal Project in Japan

Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) and Japan Suiso Energy (JSE) recently hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for the Kawasaki LH2 Terminal, a planned liquefied hydrogen complex in Ogishima, Kawasaki City, Japan. This terminal will be the world’s first commercial-scale facility to handle liquefied hydrogen, featuring a 50,000 m³ liquefied hydrogen storage tank with facilities for:

• Maritime cargo handling for loading and unloading operations
• Hydrogen liquefaction
• Hydrogen gas supply
• Lorry dispatch of liquefied hydrogen

A joint venture led by KHI is the primary contractor handling the facilities’ design and construction, while JSE manages the project. Additionally, a 40,000 m³ liquefied hydrogen carrier—among the largest in the world—will be constructed for the terminal at JFE Steel Corp.’s site. The facilities, hydrogen carrier, and the terminal itself will serve as a foundation for the full-scale operation of Japan’s future hydrogen supply chain.

The Kawasaki LH₂ Terminal will support the “Liquefied Hydrogen Supply Chain Commercialization Demonstration” project—an initiative financed by the Green Innovation Fund Project and promoted by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization. By 2030, the terminal will enter operation alongside a newly constructed liquefied hydrogen carrier while Japan determines the requirements for a commercial, international hydrogen supply chain: performance, safety, durability, reliability, economics, and commercialization.

KM Comp-H₂

In March 2025, KHI started building a hydrogen compressor demonstration facility at its Harima Works in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. The facility will test the company’s new, world-first centrifugal hydrogen compressor for hydrogen liquefaction plants, the KM Comp-H₂. KHI expected to complete construction in November 2025, followed by one year of operational testing.

The new machine achieves high-boosting performance through ultra-high-speed rotating technology, including KHI’s newly developed impeller, which optimizes a small molecular weight gas like hydrogen. Its centrifugal design handles high flow rates and reduces the installation footprint by approximately 86% compared to current hydrogen compressors. It is designed to increase the pressure of refrigerant hydrogen gas and improve efficiencies in the liquefaction process, contributing to lower hydrogen supply costs. After pressure boosting, the refrigerant gas cools the feed hydrogen gas, which serves as a raw material for transportable liquefied hydrogen.

In addition to using the compressor at hydrogen liquefaction plants, KHI will apply its collected knowledge and data to develop new centrifugal hydrogen compressors for hydrogen supply pipelines. These transport-centric machines will help to satisfy future demands as hydrogen energy expands. Also, KHI is currently developing a large-scale centrifugal hydrogen compressor designed for 100% pure hydrogen to enhance liquefaction efficiency.

Carbon-Capture Demo Facility

In late November, KHI successfully constructed a commercial-scale CO₂ capture and separation demonstration facility at Kobe Works in Kobe City, Japan. The facility will demonstrate the company’s proprietary technology, Kawasaki CO₂ Capture (KCC), within two separate units: direct air capture (DAC) to collect CO₂ from the atmosphere and post-combustion capture (PCC) to capture CO₂ from exhaust gas emitted by an in-house power plant.

DAC testing will attempt to validate capturing CO₂ from the atmosphere, while PCC testing will reduce CO₂ emissions from facilities burning fossil fuels. Through these demonstrations, KHI is progressing the technical verification required to upgrade and upscale its KCC technology and develop advanced CO₂-capture operations.