Sixteen Japanese organizations have come together to launch the Social Collaboration Program “Materials for Future Energy Infrastructure Trust (MEIT).”
Officially commencing on 1 May 2025, the five-year initiative aims to scientifically evaluate and standardize the material reliability of next-generation energy infrastructure. In particular, the MEIT program will have the following objectives:
- Evaluate and enhance material reliability for key infrastructure components supporting decarbonized energy carriers.
- Develop fracture prevention and evaluation standards for large-scale storage tanks and pipelines.
- Optimize construction costs by exploring standards for omitting post-weld heat treatments.
- Foster international standardization to improve global competitiveness.
The sixteen organizations including ClassNK, University of Tokyo, IHI Plant Services Corporation, INPEX CORPORATION, ENEOS Xplora Inc., Kanadevia Corporation, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd., Kobe Steel, Ltd., JFE Engineering Corporation, JFE Steel Corporation, JERA Co., Inc., TOKYO GAS NETWORK Co., Ltd., Namura Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., NIPPON STEEL ENGINEERING CO., LTD., NIPPON STEEL PIPELINE & ENGINEERING CO., LTD., NIPPON STEEL CORPORATION, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. aim to establish a collaboration between academia and industry in order to find solutions.
Research themes and objectives
The joint research program will focus on several critical areas, including:
- Fracture evaluation technologies and standards for large-scale liquefied ammonia tanks, addressing stress corrosion cracking and omitting post-weld heat treatment.
- Fracture evaluation for liquefied CO₂ tanks, targeting the same heat treatment optimizations.
- Standards for rapid ductile fracture prevention in high-pressure CO₂ pipelines used in CCS.
- Improved evaluation techniques for next-generation materials such as cost-effective stainless steels and low-nickel steels for use in large-scale liquefied hydrogen tanks.
Spanning from May 2025 to April 2030, the MEIT initiative is positioned as a cornerstone project in Japan’s roadmap toward sustainable, internationally competitive energy infrastructure development.
Kobe Steel, Ltd., JFE Steel Corporation, NIPPON STEEL CORPORATION, and ClassNK will serve as lead organisations (collaborating with UTokyo to manage the program’s foundation) and participate in all research projects. Other companies will join as participating organisations, addressing the planning and review of one or more projects as well as supporting national R&D initiatives and standardisation processes alongside UTokyo. Intellectual property protection, such as co-owned patents, will be actively pursued for new findings from the joint research. Additionally, the program will foster exchanges between UTokyo students and organisation researchers to secure outstanding talent in this field.
