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Toyota to purchase renewable hydrogen in California
An agreement between the Japanese car manufacturer Toyota and the US FuelCell Energy will see the car company purchase renewable hydrogen to power a fleet of its fuel cell electric vehicles, as well as a heavy-duty fuel cell Class 8 proof-of-concept truck.
The collaboration will see FuelCell Energy install a fuel cell power plant at Port of Long Beach in California that will generate renewable hydrogen and power. The hydrogen will be purchased by Toyota, and additional power will be sold to the local grid under the California Bioenergy Market Adjustment Tariff (BioMAT) programme.
Under the hydrogen off-take agreement Toyota vehicles will be refuelled on-site from one of FuelCell Energy’s multi-megawatt ‘SureSource’ fuel cell power plants. The plant co-produces hydrogen and clean power from methane-based fuels including renewable biogas. The methane is reformed to hydrogen using water and heat produced by the fuel cell, resulting in hydrogen production without water consumption, says FuelCell Energy.
In January 2016 the California Air Resources Board (CARB) performed a life cycle analysis on the system which determined that the power and hydrogen generation process is carbon-neutral due to the use of renewable biogas, and the fact that the fuel cell waste heat is used to feed the internal reformation reactions.
‘Fuelling our proof-of-concept Semi-Truck, as well as our Mirai fuel cell electric vehicles with 100% renewable hydrogen from this stationary fuel cell system is a major accomplishment, and a key step in building a sustainable hydrogen ecosystem,’ said Doug Murtha, Group Vice President – Strategic Planning at Toyota.
