{"id":121349,"date":"2017-11-30T17:55:19","date_gmt":"2017-11-30T22:55:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=121349"},"modified":"2017-11-30T18:26:38","modified_gmt":"2017-11-30T23:26:38","slug":"toyota-setting-up-la-plant-to-convert-animal-waste-to-clean-hydrogen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2017\/11\/toyota-setting-up-la-plant-to-convert-animal-waste-to-clean-hydrogen\/","title":{"rendered":"Toyota Setting up LA Plant to Convert Animal Waste to Clean Hydrogen"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Toyota's Doug Murtha talks about the automaker's hydrogen plant during the Los Angeles Auto Show.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Animal waste from the farms of California\u2019s fertile Central Valley will soon be used to fuel up a new generation of ultra-clean cars and trucks, Toyota announced Thursday during a news conference at the Los Angeles Auto Show.<\/p>\n

One of the industry\u2019s biggest proponents of fuel-cell vehicles, or FCVs, Toyota hopes the Tri-Gen Project it is setting up at the Port of Long Beach, in suburban Los Angeles, will help overcome the chicken-and-egg problem that has so far limited acceptance of hydrogen power: the lack of a production and distribution network.<\/p>\n

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Subscribe Now!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe believe hydrogen technology has the potential to become the powertrain of the future,\u201d said Doug Murtha, a group vice president for strategic planning with Toyota\u2019s North American operations. Adding the project, which will generate 1.2 tons of hydrogen a day, will be \u201ca key milestone in Toyota\u2019s larger commitment to clean mobility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toyota currently has one fuel-cell passenger vehicle on the market, the Mirai. It also has been running a pilot at the Port of Long Beach, using hydrogen-powered semis to replace the diesel trucks considered one of the major transportation sources of pollution in the smoggy L.A. region.<\/p>\n

(Toyota gets high marks for environmental practices. For the story, <\/em>Click Here<\/a><\/span>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Toyota has been earning kudos for the development of its hydrogen fuel cell-powered semi truck.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The biggest challenge for hydrogen proponents is the limited availability of the ultra-light gas. Even with a concerted effort by manufacturers and government groups, there are just 32 publicly accessible stations pumping hydrogen in the entire state of California \u2013 a number expected to reach perhaps 100 by the end of the decade. That limits where fuel-cell vehicles can be sold or operated.<\/p>\n

Even rolling in hydrogen cars sold by Hyundai and Honda, volumes have been measured in the hundreds a year.<\/p>\n

The Tri-Gen project could help set up a process to expand the infrastructure \u2013 and address another serious environmental challenge, the flood of manure created by the nation\u2019s factory farms.<\/p>\n

(<\/em>Click Here<\/a><\/span>\u00a0for more on Toyota\u2019s fuel-cell truck project.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe but, on Earth, it is not available as a pure gas. It can be generated in a variety of ways, such as using electricity to electrolyze water or separating it from more complex compounds ranging from natural gas to animal waste. That is the approach Tri-Gen will take, using the methane released as manure breaks down.<\/p>\n

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Toyota's Mirai fuel-cell vehicle may get some help from the new plant Toyota is building.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cTri-Gen is a major step forward for sustainable mobility and a key accomplishment of our 2050 environmental challenge to achieve net zero CO2 emissions from our operations,\u201d Murtha said.<\/p>\n

The project will produce enough hydrogen to fuel about 1,500 fuel-cell vehicles a day. The equivalent of 2.35 megawatts of electricity, it could alternatively power 2,350 average-sized homes.<\/p>\n

(To see more about Toyota’s Fine-Comfort Concept going 620 miles on a tank of hydrogen, <\/em>Click Here<\/a><\/span>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Toyota is partnering with Fuel Cell Energy, with several federal, state and regional government agencies on the Tri-Gen project, as well as the University of California, Irvine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toyota is taking the bull by the horns, sort of, when it comes to hydrogen fuel cells and setting up a special plant to convert animal waste to hydrogen for use in vehicles with fuel cells. Find out more at TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121347,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[151],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121349"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121349"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=121349"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=121349"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=121349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}