PLANS to export hydrogen from Western Port to Japan are in doubt, after the lead company in the venture, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, issued conflicting reports about its viability and their intention to proceed.The project was seen as an essential part of the hydrogen energy supply chain (HESC) that would see the manufacturing of hydrogen from brown coal in the Latrobe Valley, before being liquefied at Hastings and shipped to Japan to provide what proponents call “green energy” in that country.The brown coal-to-hydrogen project’s commercial partners, led by Kawasaki, have been backed by the federal and state governments, who each provided…