Toyota develops next-generation fuel cell hybrid

By Cleveland #1, Posted: 6/6/2008

But of course, they are not about to let Honda corner that market ....

By Gus #2, Posted: 6/6/2008

That's a hell of a range.
But how much fuel does it use to do that? Just adding a gasoline engine isn't really improving the concept, since now you have to visit BOTH a Hydrogen station AND a gas station.
And another question is how much can this car be built for? I heard that the Honda was still in the mid six figures...
It's a great concept, but I hear everything from "it's the future of everything" to "pipe dream" in the same arguments...

By Phil Jones #3, Posted: 6/8/2008

The Toyota FCHV-adv is a fuel cell hybrid electric vehicle. A limited amount of battery on board provides the power boost for acceleration.

There is no internal combustion engine. The hybridization is the combination of a fuel cell with some propulsion battery power.

The fuel is compressed hydrogen gas stored at 70 MPa (megapascal) [10,000 psi].

This high pressure storage of hydrogen on the vehicle makes sense for some prototype vehicles, but in the near future the fuel will be a hydrogen-rich liquid — a hydrocarbon — an alcohol — such as butanol (C4H90H).

Butanol has many advantages over hydrogen. It can be used as a hydrogen carrier to provide fuel for fuel cells — and it can be mixed in almost any proportion with gasoline and used in internal combustion engines. Butanol can be handled with the existing infrastructure.

Ethanol refineries can be reconfigured to produce butanol. Butanol has a number of advantages over ethanol, including lower corrosion factor and higher energy content.

Feedstock for the production of butanol will move well past using food crops or even using land that should be utilized for the growing of food for livestock and people. Feedstock will include biomass waste, waste water algae, CTL coal to liquid fuel. Feedstock will be supplemented by additional carbon — captured from power stations. Feedstock will also be supplemented by additional hydrogen — separated from water by a thermochemical process which will be powered by several energy sources, including nuclear power stations.

When vehicles are carrying butanol — from which the hydrogen is captured to use in a fuel cell — there will also be a method to capture the carbon from the butanol so at the next stop to refuel with more butanol, the carbon will be left at the filling station for recycling.

The advantage of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles — even plug-in hybrid electric fuel cell vehicles — is that stored electric power is a more efficient "fuel" than gasoline, diesel, ethanol, methanol, butanol, CNG compressed natural gas, or LPG liquid petroleum gas.

A plug-in hybrid electric fuel cell vehicle would do all short trips using power from the wall — and on short trips, the fuel cell and whatever fuel it's designed to use, would not even be used. For some drivers, power from the wall, during off-peak times, would provide most of their fuel requirements.

Of course to shift electricity consumption will require dynamic electricity pricing — so when you plug in your vehicle it will only start the charge process when the price is below the threshold price programmed by the user.