In August 2023, a group led by Iwatani Corporation and Toyota Tsusho Corporation began commercial operation of Japan’s first plant that turns waste plastic into hydrogen. The facility sits in the Shunan Industrial Complex in Shunan City, Yamaguchi Prefecture. It processes roughly 12 tonnes of waste plastic a day and produces about 1,100 normal cubic metres of hydrogen daily. That hydrogen flows to two local users inside Shunan City: a public bath and a hospital.
The project won a grant from the country’s Ministry of the Environment under a scheme designed to support low-carbon hydrogen supply chains. The plant relies on gasification and reforming technology, which breaks plastic down at high temperature and then converts the resulting syngas into hydrogen. The partners have not disclosed the exact capital cost, and the current setup does not include carbon capture. The hydrogen output displaces fossil-fuel-derived alternatives at the point of use, which is how the project cuts emissions.
Japan’s national hydrogen strategy, refreshed in 2023, targets 3 million tonnes of hydrogen supply per year by 2030 and 20 million tonnes by 2050. The Shunan plant is a small demonstration of one raw-material pathway. The Ministry of the Environment backing is aimed at proving that waste-to-hydrogen can work at a commercial scale, even if that scale is modest relative to the country’s overall hydrogen goals.
Who built and operates the plant
The project is a collaboration between several Japanese companies. Iwatani Corporation, a major industrial gas and energy firm, and Toyota Tsusho Corporation, the trading arm of the Toyota Group, are the lead partners. The operating entity also includes other domestic companies involved in engineering, raw-material supply, and hydrogen offtake. It is structured as a joint venture, though the precise equity split has not been made public.
Iwatani contributes experience in hydrogen production, storage and distribution. Toyota Tsusho manages the supply chain for the plastic material and the logistics of moving hydrogen to end users. The plant’s location inside the Shunan Industrial Complex gives it access to existing infrastructure and a local customer base that includes the public bath and the hospital receiving the output.
How the technology works
Gasification breaks the plastic down
The plant converts waste plastic into hydrogen through gasification followed by reforming. Gasification heats the material to a high temperature in a controlled environment with limited oxygen, snapping polymer chains into a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen known as syngas.
Reforming boosts the hydrogen yield
The syngas then passes through a reforming stage that converts carbon monoxide and water into additional hydrogen and carbon dioxide. The hydrogen is separated and purified for delivery.
Emissions depend on the feedstock and the displaced fuel
The process does not involve traditional combustion, but it does produce CO2 as a byproduct. The partners have not said the plant captures or uses that CO2. Without carbon capture, the net emissions benefit hinges on the carbon intensity of the incoming plastic and the emissions displaced at the point of use. Plastic originates from fossil fuels, so the lifecycle emissions of waste-to-hydrogen are generally higher than those of green hydrogen produced via electrolysis using renewable electricity. The Ministry of the Environment support scheme accounts for this by targeting low-carbon rather than zero-carbon supply chains.
Feedstock and output capacity
A modest daily throughput
The facility can process roughly 12 tonnes of waste plastic per day. That material comes from municipal and industrial sources in and around Shunan City. The hydrogen production capacity sits at about 1,100 normal cubic metres per day, a small volume by industrial standards. For context, a typical large steam methane reformer can produce several hundred thousand normal cubic metres of hydrogen daily. The Shunan plant demonstrates a niche raw-material pathway rather than a volume play.
Local heat, not heavy industry
The hydrogen is supplied to nearby facilities. A public bath uses it as a clean fuel for heating water, displacing the town gas or LPG it would otherwise burn. A hospital uses it for heating or for power generation, again replacing a fossil fuel. These are small, distributed applications. The group has announced no plans to supply hydrogen for mobility or for ammonia production, two of the larger demand drivers in the country’s hydrogen strategy.
Role in Japan's hydrogen and decarbonisation policy
Fitting into a national ambition
The country’s national hydrogen strategy, first published in 2017 and revised in 2023, positions hydrogen as a key decarbonisation tool for sectors that are hard to electrify: heavy industry, shipping and power generation. The strategy targets 3 million tonnes of hydrogen supply per year by 2030 and 20 million tonnes by 2050. It envisions a mix of domestic production and imports, spanning green hydrogen from renewables, blue hydrogen from fossil fuels with carbon capture, and hydrogen from byproduct sources and waste.
A policy-backed demonstration
The Shunan plant fits into the domestic production pillar. It is one of several demonstration projects funded by the Ministry of the Environment’s low-carbon hydrogen supply chain initiative. The initiative is designed to de-risk technologies that could later scale, but it does not guarantee that waste-to-hydrogen will be cost-competitive without public support. The partners have not disclosed whether they plan additional plants at other sites.
What is proven so far
As of August 2023, the Shunan plant was operating as designed and the hydrogen was flowing to its intended customers. Whether that model can be replicated at larger scale or in other locations is not established here.
Key facts
- Location: Shunan Industrial Complex, Shunan City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan
- Status: Commercial operation began August 2023
- Lead consortium members: Iwatani Corporation, Toyota Tsusho Corporation
- Technology: Gasification and reforming
- Feedstock: Waste plastic, approximately 12 tonnes per day
- Hydrogen output: Approximately 1,100 normal cubic metres per day
- End users: A public bath and a hospital in Shunan City
- Government support: Japan's Ministry of the Environment low-carbon hydrogen supply chain subsidy programme
- Carbon capture: Not included in the current configuration
