Posted on 10/25/2019 10:44:31 AM PDT by Red Badger
Toyota has showcased its second-generation Mirai, a concept car coming in 2021.
Toyota says the Mirai could run on the hydrogen from one cow's poop for a year.
The company is currently building its first manure-powered fueling station in California. The Mirai's success depends on reliable fuel cell infrastructure.
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Toyota has debuted a complete redesign of its Mirai concept vehicle, which would run on hydrogen fuel cells. Speaking at the 2019 Tokyo Motor Show, the company's chief technology officer, Shigeki Terashi, wanted to make clear how revolutionary the car's technology could be, so he chose an unorthodox example of its abilities: The splashy Mirai could be powered for a year from hydrogen from a single cow's manure.
The claim, first reported by The Telegraph, speaks to the potential of fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs). The new Mirai, which the company says is mostly what consumers will see when the car goes on sale in 2021, is larger than its predecessor. The first generation of the Mirai went on sale in 2014, and Toyota has sold over 10,000 to date.
But the new space will allow for Toyota to increase the Mirai's already impressive fuel mileage. According to Road Show, the car's cruising range will increase approximately 30 percent, which means the Mirai could drive around 400 miles on a single full charge.
“We have worked to make a car that customers will want to drive all the time, a car that has an emotional and attractive design and the kind of dynamic and responsive performance that can bring a smile to the driver’s face,” Yoshikazu Tanaka, chief engineer of the Mirai project, told Japan Times. “We hope that with the new Mirai, we will be a leader in helping to realize a hydrogen energy society.”
Toyota has been interested in cow manure for several years. In 2017, the Japanese company announced with Shell that they were building a power plant in Long Beach, California that would capture methane gas from dairy cattle manure and convert it into water, electricity, and hydrogen. The companies went ahead with their project, called Tri-Gen, as a "hydrogen-truck refueling station" in 2018.
"Toyota continues to demonstrate that fuel cells are one of the most innovative and sustainable technologies for light and heavy-duty vehicle electrification. This initiative with Shell further strengthens our combined commitment to hydrogen as a viable transport fuel," said Craig Scott, Toyota’s director advanced technology vehicles, at the time.
With cars like the Mirai, which means "future" in Japanese, the technology has been outpacing the infrastructure. Electric cars, which would run on outlet charges as opposed to fuel cells, have suffered a similar problem. Ford recently gave electric vehicles a boost in North America with the promise to build out charging infrastructure. For Toyota's FCEVs to gain widespread use, a similar boost might be needed.
Now when someone says their car runs like sh__ , it won’t just be a figure of speech.
But aren’t cow farts bad for the environment?
She was only a farmer’s daughter, but all the cow men knew her.
How is that gonna work with the environazi Gaia worshipers getting rid of all the cows because of their farts and oh yeah don’t eat meat? Now someone is inventing a car that exhausts cow farts.
But the extreme climate changers want to remove cattle from our pastures because of the methane they emit. Perhaps some enlightened and inventive American can invent a tight sealed container that can collect all the methane for fuel and keep it from polluting the environment and climate.
after all,there is an inventor down near NASA who collects old frying oil from restaurants and powers his auto with it.
The claim that the hydrogen from one cow’s poop will power a car for one year is pure Bull Shiite. 40 years ago I researched the possibility to generate power from methane from cow poop. I ran the numbers and concluded it was not economically feasible, not by a long shot.
Sounds like a bonanza for Toyota, but there’s a lot at steak.
Saw your post wanted to run the math... Here is the math.
“Manure - A cow produces 65 lbs. (29.5 kg) of feces or manure daily - that’s 12 tons (10767 kg) a year. A cow can poop up to 15 times a day.”
“In August 2021, the second-generation Mirai set a world record of traveling 1,360 km (845 mi) with a full tank of 5.65 kg hydrogen. “
Average driving distance annually is 13500 miles verified by data collected from state registration data from the NHTSA
(5.65/845)*13500= 93.06 kg of H2 per year to cover the average distance with the super efficient fuel cell power train.
So the question is how much methane does 10000+ kg of manure ferment too then since methane is CH4 one molecule of methane is two molecules of H2 gas plus a single solid carbon atom.
Penn State has the numbers for methane production in a digester.
“In Pennsylvania, dairy cows produce an estimated 5.5 million tons of reclaimable manure each year. Given the gas production rate of the Penn State digester, a net daily biogas output of 40 cubic feet (1.2 m3) per cow,”
Since we know a cow on avg makes 65lbs of manure per day and now know that turns into 40 cubic feet per day. Going to a whole year would be
14,600 CF with methane at 1010 btu per cubic foot that’s 14,746,000 btu per year. H2 is 113,839.74 btu per KG so just on a BTU basis 129.5 kg worth of energy in that methane. So the Toyota scientists were right since they are the world’s leader in hydrogen vehicles one would expect them to be right.
Turning methane into pure H2 can be done a few ways the cheapest is SMR
Steam-methane reforming reaction
CH4 + H2O (+ heat) → CO + 3H2
Water-gas shift reaction
CO + H2O → CO2 + H2 (+ small amount of heat)
Driven by these reactions:
Partial oxidation of methane reaction
CH4 + ½O2 → CO + 2H2 (+ heat)
CO + ½O2 → CO2 (+ heat)
The net result is CO2 + H2 with a over all net exothermic reaction with high temperature steam the reaction can be driven endothermicly with the SMR and water water gas shift turning more H20 into CO2 + H2 doubling the yield of H2 per cubic foot of methane as each carbon molecule takes two O molecules yielding two H2 from each two H2O consumed in the water gas shift reaction. The 700 degree steam can be sourced from solar thermal, resistance heaters powered by wind or solar or a gas cooled nuke to make zero carbon steam. Either way the fuel cell is so efficient yes a single cows waste has more than enough hydrogen in it’s produced methane to drive that car much farther than the average American drives. Cheers curiosity satisfied.
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