Mitsubishi signs MoU with Infinium to accelerate decarbonization

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) announced today it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Infinium, an Electrofuels™ innovator headquartered in California. The agreement, which builds on MHI’s 2021 investment in Infinium, will focus on exploring the deployment of Infinium’s proprietary Electrofuels™ technology in the Japanese market.

According to Infinium, Electrofuels™ are classified as ultra-low carbon fuels because they reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 97 percent when compared to traditional jet and diesel fuels. They are a drop-in replacement for fossil-based fuels and can be used in airplanes, trucks, and ships without the need for costly engine modifications.

By combining Infinium Electrofuels™ production technology with MHI Group’s CO2 capture technology and value chain solutions, MHI aims to accelerate the realization of a carbon-neutral society in Japan, alongside its existing strategies such as EV oriented transportation, CO2 recovery and carbon offsets.

“We’re proud to collaborate with Infinium to combine their proprietary technology with our expertise in the industry,” said Makoto Susaki, Head of CCUS Business Taskforce. “Together, we can accelerate deployment of these key solutions throughout Japan and around the world in order to achieve our common goal of decarbonization.”

“The Infinium team is tremendously excited about this opportunity to bring clean fuels to the Japanese market alongside our colleagues at MHI,” said Infinium CEO Robert Schuetzle. “We’re on a mission to decarbonize the world, and the opportunity to build Electrofuels™ production in yet another pivotal geographic market further validates the growing commitment to a net-zero carbon future.”

This collaboration also supports the Japanese government’s Green Growth Strategy, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 46 percent by 2030 (from 2013 levels) and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. The use of carbon-neutral fuels is expected to play a key role in decarbonizing industries where this is typically challenging such as long-distance transportation, air transportation, and marine transportation, where electric vehicles are considered difficult to utilize at scale.

MHI Group is working to realize a carbon-neutral society and building a CO2 ecosystem is one of the pillars of this effort. Through this collaboration, MHI will further promote the CCUS value chain, as well as the digital grid it designed with IBM Japan to visualize CO2 distribution, CO2NNEX™.

Source: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.