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Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd. is pleased to announce the launch of the Yamanashi Model Power-to-Gas (P2G) System, designed to produce hydrogen, a promising next-generation energy source, at the Shirakawa Factory, the company’s main tire manufacturing center. The system commenced operations in April. This endeavor comes as part of an agreement with Yamanashi Prefecture, which oversaw the development of the system through funding from the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), with Sumitomo Rubber implementing and promoting the use of the system. At the Shirakawa Factory, the P2G system runs 24 hours a day to produce up to approximately 100 tons of hydrogen annually, which is expected to reduce CO₂ emissions by approximately 1,000 tons per year across the entire supply chain, including transportation (Scopes 1–3^*1).

Yamanashi Model P2G System
The Yamanashi Model P2G System is a next-generation energy system developed mainly by Yamanashi Prefecture. It uses renewable energy sources such as solar power to electrolyze water in order to produce “green hydrogen”^*2 with low environmental impact. As a technology that ensures stable hydrogen supply and accelerates decarbonization in a wide range of industrial fields, the P2G system attracts high expectations both in Japan and overseas.

Sumitomo Rubber’s History in Hydrogen Utilization and Future Prospects
In 2021, Sumitomo Rubber established Driving Our Future Challenge 2050 as its long-term sustainability policy to promote group-wide initiatives toward building a sustainable society. Among the seven material issues that have been identified^*3, we have set a vision of becoming “A company committed to proactively reducing CO₂ emissions” in response to “Climate Change,” targeting carbon neutrality by 2050. As part of efforts toward this goal, we have been working to harness hydrogen, recognized as a next-generation energy source. With support from NEDO and Fukushima Prefecture, we ran a proof-of-concept experiment on the use of hydrogen in tire manufacturing at our Shirakawa Factory from August 2021 to March 2024.

In the demonstration, we harnessed hydrogen supplied from a hydrogen production facility in Fukushima Prefecture, a leader in renewable energy, to generate in a hydrogen boiler, high-temperature, high-pressure steam for use in the vulcanization process, which is the final stage of tire manufacturing. This serves as a critical step for giving rubber its elasticity through heating and pressurization, thereby completing the tire’s shape and performance. In January 2023, we started production of Japan’s first mass-produced tires^*4 that achieve carbon neutrality^*5 during manufacturing (Scopes 1 and 2) through the combination of hydrogen energy and solar power generation.

Building on these results, in May 2024, the company signed a basic agreement on decarbonization through the use of green hydrogen with Yamanashi Prefecture and decided to introduce the P2G system at the Shirakawa Factory. Producing hydrogen within the factory is expected to further reduce CO₂ emissions, including transportation (Scope 3).

The P2G system began operations in April 2025. At the Shirakawa Factory, green hydrogen produced by the P2G system will be utilized as one of the five energy sources including conventional delivered hydrogen, grid power, solar power generated on site, and existing fuels. The achievement of further decarbonization will be aimed while maintaining stable operations by optimizing the combination of multiple power sources.

Sumitomo Rubber has designated the Shirakawa Factory as a “grandmaster plant that achieves decarbonization.” While accumulating expertise in tire manufacturing utilizing green hydrogen through the Yamanashi Model P2G System, we are also exploring the possibility of expanding this initiative to our other factories in Japan and overseas for the future. In March 2025, we also signed a basic agreement with the Central Japan Hydrogen and Ammonia Association on mutual collaboration to establish a supply chain for hydrogen, ammonia, etc. Based on this agreement, we will also proceed to investigate the harnessing of hydrogen in the Chubu region.

We will continue to drive forward our efforts to achieve carbon neutrality under our Driving Our Future Challenge 2050 initiative, thereby contributing to the development of a sustainable society.


 

 <Reference: Past Press Releases>
▷Sumitomo Rubber to Begin Proof of Concept Toward Harnessing Hydrogen Energy at Shirakawa Factory in Fukushima Prefecture (July 28, 2021):
https://www.srigroup.co.jp/english/newsrelease/2021/sri/2021_057.html

*1: Scope 1: Direct greenhouse gas emissions from operators themselves; Scope 2: Indirect emissions associated with the use of electricity or heat supplied by other companies; Scope 3: Greenhouse gases emitted by third parties that are related to the company’s activities but not directly managed by the company, such as during transportation or use and disposal after product sales
*2: Green hydrogen: Hydrogen produced with zero CO2 emissions using electricity derived from renewable energy
*3: Material issues identified by the Sumitomo Rubber Group: https://www.srigroup.co.jp/english/sustainability/materiality.html
*4: Falken AZENIS FK520 (excluding Falken AZENIS FK520L)
*5: Subtracting the amount absorbed through reforestation, forest management, etc. from the amount of greenhouse gases released, such as carbon dioxide, to achieve a net total of zero.