| HN Mirror

There are two reasons why Toyota is pursuing hydrogen.

First, the well known short comings of BEV as often pointed out on HN. The most common is range anxiety (dead electric car) and how long it takes to recharge (30 minutes at a quick charging). With a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, it has a higher energy density so its range is farther and it takes about 10 minutes to fuel up a Toyota Mirai with hydrogen. This is the reason why commercial trucks and long distance trains are looking at hydrogen fuel cells. [1] [2] [3]

The second and probably more important reason why Toyota is betting on hydrogen is that the Japanese government mandated it. [4] By 2050, Japan wants to transition off fossil fuels using a combination of electrification and hydrogen/methanation/synthetic fuels/biomass. See slide 2(2) Energy Outlook of Carbon Neutrality in 2050 from [4]. This make sense to Japan. Japan is not only looking passenger vehicles. Japan is thinking about how to wean off commercial trucks, heavy industry, and shipping off fossil fuels. It thinks that hydrogen fuel cells may be the answer.

The biggest drawback with hydrogen is that transporting long distances requires cooling hydrogen to –253 °C [5]. However, in 2006, the US Department of Energy had already talked about using ammonia as the "hydrogen carrier" [6]. Ammonia can be transported at –33 °C [5]. The Department of Energy envisions transporting liquefied ammonia via pipelines, trucks, and tankers. Then "cracking" it back to hydrogen at a substation.

>Ammonia may be considered as a potential hydrogen carrier for hydrogen delivery and for off-board storage, such as at refueling stations and for stationary power applications. Ammonia, delivered to refueling stations and stored onsite, would need to be reformed prior to vehicle filling and levels of trace ammonia in the hydrogen stream would need to be reduced to meet fuel purity requirements (e.g., < 0.1 ppm NH3) for PEM fuel cells. The use of ammonia as a hydrogen carrier is being investigated further by DOE’s Hydrogen Delivery Program and the FreedomCAR & Fuel Partnership’s Hydrogen Delivery Technical Team.

[1] https://spectra.mhi.com/planes-trains-and-ships-hydrogens-ro... [2] https://www.cummins.com/news/2022/04/28/cummins-fuel-cells-p... [3] https://www.cummins.com/news/releases/2022/08/25/cummins-fue... [4] https://www.meti.go.jp/english/press/2020/pdf/1225_001a.pdf [5] https://cen.acs.org/business/petrochemicals/ammonia-fuel-fut... [6] https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2015/01/f19/fcto_nh3...