Toyota Motor Corporation and its partners unveiled plans for a pioneering project to create an end-to-end low-carbon hydrogen supply chain.  They'll test it by using hydrogen generated from renewable energy sources to power an initial pair of new generation forklifts.

A statement says the chain will begin at a wind power plant in Yokohama City, which is just 40 kilometers more or less from Tokyo.  The wind turbines will generate electricity used to separate hydrogen from oxygen in water molecules.  The hydrogen will be transported in a hydrogen fueling truck to a factory, a vegetable and fruit market, and two warehouses equipped with the fuel cell-powered forklifts.  A year from now, the partners will increase to a fleet of twelve hydrogen fueled forklifts. 

"This low-carbon hydrogen supply chain is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by at least 80 percent compared with a supply chain using forklifts powered by gasoline or grid electricity," said the statement from Toyota, Toshiba, and Iwatani corporations.  Yokohama City, Kawasaki City, and Kanagawa Prefecture will also take part in the pilot project, which is supported by Japan’s Ministry of the Environment.

If the experiment goes as hoped, the partners believe it will prove that resource-poor Japan can become a "hydrogen-based society", and will encourage the use of fuel cells to power cars, homes, and office buildings