• Japan’s Mizushima industrial cluster plans to ship about 3.43 million tonnes of liquefied CO2 annually, the largest planned volume among the country’s developing CCS clusters.
• Six major industrial companies will design shared capture, liquefaction, storage and shipping infrastructure under a JOGMEC-backed programme.
• The shared model aims to lower CCS costs for hard-to-abate industries as Japan targets commercial-scale carbon capture and storage by 2030.

Japan is advancing plans for a major liquefied carbon dioxide shipping hub at the Mizushima industrial complex in Okayama Prefecture. The project could become the country’s largest maritime CCS cluster by planned transport volume.

Sumitomo Corporation, Asahi Kasei, ENEOS, JFE Steel, Mitsubishi Gas Chemical and Mitsubishi Chemical have been selected to develop the project’s design.

The companies were chosen by the Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security, or JOGMEC. Their work will cover CO2 separation, capture, liquefaction, temporary storage and maritime transport.

The Mizushima cluster is expected to ship about 3.43 million tonnes of liquefied CO2 each year. That would make it the largest planned shipping volume among Japan’s CCS clusters currently under development.

Shared infrastructure targets lower CCS costs

Mizushima, located in Kurashiki City, is one of Japan’s largest industrial complexes. It hosts major steel, chemicals, automotive and energy operations.

Several facilities within the cluster are considered difficult to decarbonise using renewable electricity or electrification alone. CCS could therefore play a significant role in reducing residual industrial emissions.

Rather than developing separate infrastructure for each emitter, the six companies will examine a shared system. Multiple industrial operators could use common CO2 liquefaction, temporary storage and shipping facilities.

The model is intended to reduce capital and operating costs across the CCS value chain. It could also provide a blueprint for collective industrial decarbonisation in other manufacturing centres.

The work forms part of a new JOGMEC programme focused on reducing the cost of CCS projects that depend on maritime transport.

Mizushima was one of six emitter clusters selected by JOGMEC in June 2026. The wider initiative aggregates CO2 from neighbouring industrial facilities and connects them through shared transport infrastructure.

For corporate operators, that structure could help address one of CCS’s central commercial challenges: the high cost of building dedicated infrastructure before sufficient volumes are available.

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Japan builds maritime CO2 transport capacity

Shipping is becoming an important element of Japan’s carbon-management strategy.

Large industrial emitters are not always located close to suitable geological storage formations. In those cases, pipelines can prove technically difficult or economically unattractive.

Transporting liquefied CO2 by sea could connect industrial clusters with offshore or overseas storage locations while allowing infrastructure to serve several emitters.

Japan has already begun testing the model.

The NEDO-backed EXCOOL demonstration vessel has transported liquefied CO2 between the Maizuru and Tomakomai terminals. The programme has examined transport conditions alongside the safety, environmental and economic performance of marine CO2 shipping.

Those trials are helping build the technical foundation for projects such as Mizushima, where significantly larger volumes would need to move through an integrated commercial system.

CCS policy moves toward commercial deployment

Japan is targeting the commercialisation of CCS by 2030 as part of its wider strategy to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

JOGMEC has been supporting a portfolio of advanced CCS projects aimed at developing commercially viable capture, transport and storage networks.

The Mizushima project now moves into design and feasibility work. The six companies will assess how common infrastructure can handle the industrial complex’s expected CO2 volumes and integrate emissions from different facilities.

For executives and investors, the project highlights how Japan is approaching CCS as shared industrial infrastructure rather than a collection of standalone corporate projects.

That approach could influence project economics, risk allocation and future investment structures. It may also determine how quickly hard-to-abate industries gain access to viable carbon-management networks.

If successful, Mizushima could provide Japan with a scalable model for connecting industrial clusters to storage sites by sea. Its development will also test whether shared infrastructure can bring maritime CCS closer to commercial deployment across Asia’s heavily industrialised economies.