Japan’s Tanaka Kikinzoku group has inaugurated 4 billion yen (nearly €31 million) expansion of its Fuel Cell (FC) Catalyst Development Center at the Shonan plant in Kanagawa Prefecture, operated by its manufacturing subsidiary Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo. The expanded facility is due to reach full-scale operation in January 2019.

Adding 3,000 m2 of production facilities combined with new shipping and warehouse facilities will allow the Japanese firm to provide stable supplies of electrode catalyst in response to rising demand for precious metal electrode catalysts. Tanaka said the catalyst market has grown in tandem with expanding fuel cell markets, facilitating the development of a hydrogen society.

The company cites growing global support for enabling hydrogen energy for fuel cell-driven vehicles. China is supporting the development of an infrastructure for such vehicles as a strategic industry, with the city of Shanghai recently announcing plans to subsidize the purchase of fuel cell vehicles and the establishment of R&D facilities.

As the Japanese player noted, the global move away from diesel vehicles is accelerating in Europe, and the region is also seeing the development of new transportation fields, including hydrogen-powered trains, marine craft and unmanned or connected vehicles.

Tanaka, lays claims to market leadership in providing precious metal fuel cell catalysts for more than half a century, supported by its ownresearch and development activities.

Tanaka’s catalyst development center designs, tests and manufactures electrode catalysts for polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs), employing a new technology already used in household 'ENE FARM' fuel cells and in fuel cell vehicles (FCVs). The company said it expects PEFC use to expand into the fields of industrial machinery, such as FC forklifts, and commercial vehicles, such as FC buses.

The environmentally friendly production process for the PEFCs uses a simple chemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen based on Tanaka’s combination of precious metal catalytic technology and electrochemical technologies. Among other things, the company produces a highly active platinum catalyst for cathode (air electrode) and a platinum alloy catalyst resistant to carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning for anode (fuel electrodes).