AIR WATER INC.
Meeting society’s needs with nature’s blessings
Air Water Group has expanded its business with the supply of industrial gases as its starting point, delivering a wide variety of products and services, including industrial gases and chemicals that are active in manufacturing sites, medical care that supports people's lives, energy, agriculture and food related to daily life, as well as logistics, seawater, and aerosols. We are developing these diverse businesses in four business areas: Digital & Industry, Energy Solutions, Health & Safety, and Agri & Foods. At the same time, Air Water has been contributing to the space industry for half a century, with a focus on its founding business of industrial gases. A rocket takes off into the sky for space, and it takes a lot of power to break through the atmosphere. The secret was industrial gases, especially liquefied gas, which are the raw materials for rocket fuel. So far, Air Water has participated in the development project of the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) H-1 rocket, and has been involved in precise gas control technology for the piping system of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen sent to the engine. The company manufactures xenon, an industrial gas, and supplies it as an engine propellant for various satellites. The asteroid explorer Hayabusa, launched in 2003, also has a track record of supplying xenon. In 2021, the Hokkaido Space Science and Technology Creation Center (HASTIC), the Hokkaido Space Port Study Group, and the Asian commercial spaceport "Hokkaido Spaceport" will be established. In addition to supporting the town of Taiki in Hokkaido and SPACE COTAN in terms of human resources and funds, we also provide equipment and technical support. In addition, in December 2023, Interstellar Technologies, Inc., a rocket venture company, is using "rocket engine fuel (LBM: liquefied biomethane) derived from cow manure" manufactured by our company, Air Water. For the first time in the world, a private company has succeeded in a combustion test of the engine of the ZERO small satellite launch vehicle using fuel from cow manure.
Our target customers are not only manufacturers of space-related tests and equipment, but also universities and space-related businesses. In particular, with the support of NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization), we are currently promoting "demonstration research on biomethane production system from unused resources = cow dung to realize a bioenergy local supply chain". In the future, we aim to provide the carbon-neutral biomethane gas produced through this demonstration as "rocket engine fuel (LBM: liquefied biomethane)" to rocket launch companies.
2-12-8 Minami Semba, Chuo-ku, Osaka 542-0081, Japan