Kyushu University and Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. have formed a comprehensive collaboration agreement to develop and acquire cutting-edge environmental infrastructure technologies that contribute to carbon neutrality, as well as pursue practical use and commercialization of these technologies in relevant fields. Coinciding with this, Mitsui Chemicals has established the Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. – Carbon Neutral Research Center (MCI-CNRC）within the International Institute for Carbon-Neutral Energy Research (I²CNER), Kyushu University.
I²CNER facilities were selected and established in 2010 as part of the World Premier International Research Center Initiative (WPI) under Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), then became a WPI Academy Center under this initiative in 2020. I²CNER is the first research facility in the world to bear “carbon-neutral” in its name.
Mitsui Chemicals declared in November 2020 that it will endeavor to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. To this end, Mitsui Chemicals is pursuing a carbon neutrality strategy based on the two-pronged approach of reducing the Mitsui Chemicals Group’s Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions while also maximizing the ability of the Group’s products to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, with aims through all this to operate as a chemical company that makes significant contributions to social change.
MCI-CNRC is set to take the world-leading expertise that I²CNER has built up for carbon-neutral and carbon-negative technologies -including green hydrogen as well as carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS)- and combine this with the development- and industrialization-related expertise that Mitsui Chemicals has built up in aim of getting its environmentally friendly technologies into practical use. This combination will then be used as the groundwork from which to conduct joint research. Further, by carrying out focused and efficient research into the elemental technologies needed to achieve carbon neutrality, the center will speed up the process of getting these technologies adopted in society.
