Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL)’s Wind Hunter project, a zero-emission initiative that uses wind power to produce hydrogen, has been selected by Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) to participate in a project to research the potential for achieving a hydrogen society.
The official name of the project is ‘Development of Technologies for Realizing a Hydrogen Society / Regional Hydrogen Utilization Technology Development Hydrogen Production and Utilization Potential Project’.
The NEDO project encompasses not only investigating the optimisation of hydrogen production vessel but also researching optimal wind conditions of the sea area around Japan that will produce green hydrogen energy for local production and consumption, building a demonstration vessel for the Wind Hunter project, and examining the hydrogen supply chains. These efforts and technological prospects were highly evaluated by NEDO and led to its selection for the project.
MOL first launched the Wind Hunter project in NOvember 2020, usingoffshore wind energy to produce hydrogen onboard vessels and supplies it to the onshore market, with the aim of realising a decarbonised, hydrogen-based society. MOL conducted various demonstrations using the demonstration yacht Winz Maru. In March 2025, MOL successfully supplied green hydrogen production with offshore wind and supply to shore for the first time.
Assuming that a hydrogen value chain will be established in Japan in the future, MOL aims to build and commercialize a demonstration vessel as early as the 2030s.
Image: Proposed full-size ‘Wind Hunter’ vessel (source: MOL)
