Never Give Up…Īnyone anticipating the immanent demise of the Mirai might have to stretch their timeline a bit. That project appears to have shifted focus onto carbon captured by trees, but the list of products that can be made directly from ambient carbon seems to be growing by the minute, including fabrics, diamonds, protein, and vodka. In 2016, Ford launched a long term R&D project to make plastic auto parts from captured carbon. Back in 2017, CleanTechnica spotted a system for converting captured carbon into synthetic gas, a field that has since blossomed into the electrofuel industry.Įlectrofuel is just one option. ![]() FuelCell Energy also suggests that the excess can be used in other industrial processes on site, or recycled elsewhere.īulk sequestration in underground facilities is another option, but our money is on recycling. Some of the carbon can be used to generate additional power at the site. The system can also capture carbon dioxide from coal or gas power plant emissions. The company’s carbonate fuel cells are high-temperature systems that operate at 600 degrees Celsius to render methane - the primary ingredient of both fossil gas and RNG - into hydrogen and carbon. The carbon picture shifts once the fuel is used and lifecycle emissions kick in.įuelCell Energy has come up with a system for dealing with that. Toyota also expects to fuel up a fleet of class 8 trucks with its RNG-sourced hydrogen.ĭepending on who’s talking, RNG can be considered a carbon negative fuel because it captures fugitive methane emissions from organic matter that would otherwise vent from landfills and wastewater facilities, although that’s not quite how the Energy Department sees it. Meanwhile, the 1.3 tons of hydrogen produced daily by Trigen will be marketed as a carbon negative fuel for the Mirai (more on that in a sec), which provides Toyota with another much-needed selling point for the car. Trigen will also spit out approximately 1,400 gallons of water a day, to be used for washing vehicles. deployed its subsidiary SoCal Biomethane, LLC, to hook up FuelCell Energy with renewable natural gas for the new Trigen power station, with an assist from the renewable fuel marketer Anew Climate.Īccording to Anaergia, the Trigen facility will produce 2.3 megawatts of electricity from RNG, enough to supply Toyota’s logistics operation with some left over for the grid. ![]() More pieces fell into place last week, when the startup Anaergia Inc. Toyota engaged the US company FuelCell Energy to provide the fuel cell system for the power station, named Trigeneration, or Trigen for short. Carbon Negative Fuel For Fuel Cell Carsīack in 2017, Toyota came up with the idea of deploying biogas (aka RNG or renewable natural gas) from agricultural waste in California to produce hydrogen, electricity, and water at its massive Toyota Logistics Center import/export facility at the Port of Long Beach, with the aim of achieving carbon neutral status. Add a carbon capture system, and the potential exists for carbon-negative hydrogen. ![]() Back in 2019, CleanTechnica took stock of the opportunities, including biogas recovery systems from livestock farms as well as landfills and wastewater, with early adopters including New York City, San Antonio, Dallas, and Philadelphia.Īs described by the US Department of Energy, biogas-derived hydrogen is almost carbon neutral. Much of the activity has centered on electrolysis systems, which deploy renewable energy to jolt renewable hydrogen gas from water.īiogas is another emerging source, and it is overdue for its share of the limelight. Natural gas is currently the primary source for hydrogen, but money has begun pouring into alternatives. If hydrogen fuel cell mobility catches on here in the US, that would be good news for natural gas stakeholders - or not, as the case may be. Even if the Mirai ultimately slides into the dustbin of automotive history, the car is helping to lay the groundwork for renewable hydrogen to play a leading role in global decarbonization. No matter how dismal the future looks for its Mirai hydrogen fuel cell sedan, Toyota is not giving up or surrendering.
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