Fujifilm, Tokyo Gas launch Japan's first biomethane-linked city gas pilot

FUJIFILM Corporation, Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd. and Tokyo Gas Engineering Solutions Corporation on June 25 agreed to supply biomethane-linked city gas to Fujifilm’s Ashigara Site at the Kanagawa Factory. The companies said the pilot will cover part of the site and marks the first initiative in Japan’s chemical industry to use this kind of city gas at a manufacturing site.

The agreement is being positioned as a preliminary test of regulatory treatment, supply stability and costs for imported biomethane in Japan. Biomethane’s main component is methane, so it can move through existing LNG and city-gas infrastructure, a practical feature for manufacturers that need to cut fuel emissions without rebuilding thermal systems around new equipment. For Fujifilm, the arrangement extends a decarbonization push at a site in Minamiashigara, Kanagawa Prefecture, where the company makes advanced materials.

The move also fits Fujifilm’s longer operating plan. Fujifilm Holdings Corporation has set a goal of reducing CO2 emissions associated with energy used in its own operations to net zero by 2040. The company said the new city gas arrangement is a preliminary step toward carbon-neutral fuel use at manufacturing sites in the chemical sector, where production often requires both electricity and thermal energy at high heat.

The Ashigara pilot builds on a broader partnership the three sides launched in 2022, when Fujifilm, Tokyo Gas and Minamiashigara City signed a comprehensive agreement toward a decarbonized future. That earlier work centered on methanation, in which CO2 captured from factory gas-consuming equipment is combined with hydrogen to make synthetic methane that can replace natural gas. The new biomethane-linked supply widens the options Fujifilm is testing for industrial heat, while government councils continue to discuss how overseas-produced biomethane should be treated under the SHK System.

Tokyo Gas has been building its biomethane business around international supply chains as it advances carbon-neutral energy under its Compass 2030 strategy. The company said in March 2024 that it brought the first delivery of overseas-produced biomethane to Japan through a transaction with Mitsui & Co., Ltd., involving about 40,000 cubic meters of biomethane gas equivalent from U.S. landfill biogas delivered at the Ohgishima LNG Terminal on March 19, 2024. The Fujifilm deal shows that groundwork is moving from terminal logistics into a manufacturing-site pilot, while the Science Based Targets initiative revises standards tied to corporate net-zero claims and bioenergy treatment.