Posted on 12/22/2023 7:50:29 AM PST by Red Badger
A hydrogen combustion engine would be ideal for a Toyota GR branded sports car, if only drivers could fill up
Toyota remains adamant that a variety of emissions-reducing technologies will be important for the automotive industry. One, in particular, will be helpful for people who like to drive fast: hydrogen combustion engines.
The automaker believes that the technology could help keep internal combustion engine sports cars alive in an electric world. In fact, Masahito Watanabe, the head of Toyota’s Gazoo Racing division, says that complete electrification is not a priority for the sub-brand at this time.
“We still think the internal combustion engine has some potential,” Watanabe told Autocar. “We don’t want to give up. It’s not over just yet, because if you look at the internal combustion engine, there’s still hydrogen combustion that can be a part of that zero-emission line-up, so I think that’s going to continue.”
However, he admitted that a major hurdle stands in the way of the technology: infrastructure. Like any new technology, people who want to drive a hydrogen vehicle lack easy access to filling stations.
But Gazoo Racing will get some help on that score, in the form of a Hydrogen Factory Europe. A new division of Toyota Motor Europe, it will be tasked with accelerating the commercialization of hydrogen technology and systems.
The automaker says that it believes the continent will soon be one of the largest hydrogen markets in the world, thanks to government investments and growing interest from the private sector. Toyota says that the technology will be useful for heavy-duty transportation, like trucks, coaches, shipping, as well as sports cars.
“What we want to do in the end is provide as many options as possible to our customers,” said Watanabe. “So we will continue to develop the hydrogen internal combustion engine as part of that.”
That means that, in addition to hydrogen combustion engines, Gazoo Racing will also develop electric, hybrids, and fuel cell vehicles. However, progress on hydrogen engine vehicles is going well, as the technology has already taken a GR Corolla to the finish line in a 24-hour race in the ENEOS Super Taikyu Series this year.
Ping!....................
Toyota gets it - a Need For Speed is a human universal + fully electric will never be the total solution that some think it is.
They are only doing this because of twisted marxist central planning from governments.
The national highway traffic safety administration needs to be eliminated
“However, he admitted that a major hurdle stands in the way of the technology: infrastructure.”
I think something akin to bottle exchanges would be the path of least resistance.
Any ICE engine can be modified to burn hydrogen.
Not as much BTU power to the wheels, but useable.
And people can make hydrogen at home, slow but possible..............
The British Top Gear guys said hydrogen was the way forward many years ago.
https://youtu.be/0fBqkWkEeqU?si=DnB7m1VzR1txnxcc
Where are you going to get the hydrogen?
And no, you can't "make" hydrogen at home. You can crack it out of water or hydrocarbons ... which requires energy. Where's that going to come from? Wind? Solar? Don't make me laugh! On second thought, do ...
"Green" energy is a lie.
The Greens hate nuclear, coal, oil, and methane. They hate hydro, which is funny: hydro power is really just solar by another name. They feed us BS about solar and wind ... and either they don't know what they're talking about, or they're lying.
Hydrogen alone makes no sense. Now, if you just add some carbon to that hydrogen and make a liquid hydrocarbon fuel, you’d really have something.
Get the carbon from biomass and you’d be “carbon neutral,” too. No releasing that evil carbon stored in coal.
You need energy to make energy for ANY solution.
The question is does it require more energy than what you produce.
It is possible to store hydrogen by high energy ball milling boron nitride in a hydrogen atmosphere.
Although it seems like engine modification would be necessary to prevent hydrogen embrittlement.
Where will you get the hydrogen ? Well where will all the electricity for EVs come from ? LOL
Or your could burn liquid hydrocarbons in a combustion engine, dispense with all that hydrogen nonsense, and tell the greenies to go perform seppuku.
That question is easily answered: Is the stuff you’re pulling out of the ground a fuel or a reaction product?
I read somewhere that Ford has research into developing ‘water run’ engines that converts it into hydrogen. China can’t control the world’s water sources vs the mining necessary for battery components in EV’s.
As the owner of excavation and utility construction company, no one can tell me how it will be possible to charge a fleet EV heavy equipment in an efficient and fast manner. It’s not like I can afford to double the size of my fleet of loaders, excavators, and dump trucks so one set is charging while the other is in operation.
If they do away with diesel fuel, the only real alternative will be hydrogen.
The major hurdle is embrittlement…
I have enough solar and battery storage to provide 81% of all the power we consumed in the past 365 days, with most of the 19% power pulled from the grid during the winter months from mid-November to mid-March. I can live with the system as is unless the Dims make it so that the only way I get the other 19% from the grid is if I join their cult. Every now and then I sit down and do the project engineering for what it would take to make the home more energy efficient and improve on solar and battery storage if it came down to having to be off-grid. Hydrogen storage has the benefit of being able to sit in tanks for half a year without degrading like battery power would (batteries losing charge just sitting). But generating the hydrogen gas through electrolysis, then using the gas to power a fuel cell when needed is a very inefficient round trip for power. I wouldn't get back nearly as much power as I consumed creating the gas.
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