Client Situation
Our client is a large multinational manufacturer headquartered in Japan. It has over $11 billion in revenue and about 35,000 employees around the world. In 2014, the company broke all revenue and income records since it was established in the 1870’s. The client focuses on aerospace, energy, heavy equipment and transportation. In the case of this project, Cedar worked with the firm’s Tokyo offices in the area of renewable energy technology. The company is being funded by the Japanese government to develop Hydrogen as a fuel for vehicles and electric power generation. Our client is planning to use brown coal from Australia to produce Hydrogen. A supply chain for brown coal processing, Carbon Dioxide sequestration, marine and ground Hydrogen transport and distribution is now being developed. The client wanted to understand how the Hydrogen supply chain in North America was developing and what types of refining, transport and storage technologies were being used.
Cedar’s Approach
Cedar was mandated to provide a technical market assessment of Hydrogen use as a fuel and for refinery applications and the key components to the supply chain in North America.
- Collected secondary information from the US DOE and EPA and companies developing H2 for fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) and industrial applications.
- Interviewed the leading companies involved in the North American supply chain for H2 for FCVs and industrial applications.
- Identified the key North American suppliers of H2 production, transport and storage technologies for both FCV and industrial applications.
- Worked with our client to identify, evaluate and approach potential partners for the H2 technologies above.
Outcome
The program resulted in the development of the necessary H2 technologies to responsibly produce, transport, store and distribute H2 as a renewable fuel. The results included
- Identified key technologies in the H2 supply chain in North America.
- Identified key participants and owners of the key technologies in the North American H2 supply chain.
- Approached the key North American participants to establish partnerships in Japan with our client.
- Resulted in a successful transfer of H2 supply chain technology for the Japanese market and continued funding to develop this renewable, low/no Carbon fuel.
- We made Strategy Work