(Invited) Fuel Cells to Power Sustainable Mobility and Beyond
Authors: Cerri Isotta 
Published: December 2024

The transition to a climate-neutral society is both an urgent challenge and an opportunity to build a better future for all. By endorsing the Paris Agreement goal to limit global warming to 1.5°C Toyota has committed to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 on a life cycle basis.

Toyota’s use phase approach to carbon neutrality is to develop and offer multiple technologies to support diverse customer needs and market environments around the world. Toyota has in fact been steadily advancing an electrification strategy for more than twenty years, starting in 1997 with the first hybrid vehicle (Prius), later in 2015 with the fuel cell electric vehicle (Mirai) and more recently with plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and a large fleet of battery electric vehicles.

To date Toyota sold over 20 million electrified vehicles worldwide, of which 4 million in Europe, cumulatively contributing to over 160 million tonnes of CO2 reduction. While constantly innovating in technology and making significant investments in leading-edge battery technologies, such as the solid state type, Toyota is a front runner in hydrogen fuel cells. The proton-exchange-membrane fuel cell technology that was introduced in the Mirai, the first mass-produced fuel cell electric vehicle, is also suitable for other applications. Through most recent technological developments we are now able to offer fuel cell modular systems for applications beyond automotive. To expand the potential of hydrogen from cars to other uses, we have repackaged our fuel cell technology into compact fuel cell modules. The main components (the fuel cell stack and components that handle air and hydrogen supply, cooling, and power control) are thus integrated in a compact package which can be easily adapted into a variety of products and applications.

The new fuel cell module is based on the second generation proton-exchange-membrane fuel cell stack and has a wide voltage range (400 to 750 V). It can be connected to an electrical instrument thanks to its built-in fuel cell boost converter that simplifies the development and manufacture of fuel cell products. A modular approach improves convenience: the different models can be combined to match the output level and installation space available. Modularity also eliminates the need to create designs for individually installing and connecting fuel cell system-related components and decreases the number of locations the module must be connected to a device, which eases installation.

Thanks to the characteristics of the very compact fuel cell system, which eliminates a vehicle’s humidifier by circulating the water generated during power generation inside the fuel cell stack, the new fuel cell module has achieved a world-class, top-level output density per unit volume. It is appropriate for longer distance, higher loads – and a key instrument to reach carbon neutrality within society as a whole.

To build an Hydrogen economy Toyota is strongly promoting the establishment of Hydrogen ecosystems in Europe, where different sectors unite and bring their skills, technologies and applications together – such as truck, bus, taxi fleets and hydrogen infrastructure – to create viable business opportunities that can flourish and become the nucleus of larger-scale activities.

Toyota has positioned hydrogen as a critical fuel to achieve carbon neutrality, and promotes the use of hydrogen not only through fuel cell electric vehicles, including passenger cars, pickups, commercial van, trucks, and buses, but also through the widespread use of fuel cell products, such as the development and test operation of stationary generators. To this end, Toyota is working with various industry partners in the areas of producing, transporting, storing, and using hydrogen and recently announced the development of water electrolysers, leveraging on the expertise and manufacturing capability of proton-exchange-membrane fuel cells.

The electrolysis equipment, which utilizes the fuel stack from the Mirai is a newly developed equipment that takes as advantage the knowledge and expertise it has accumulated from a variety of usage environments around the world. The unit installed at DENSO Fukushima can produce approximately 8 kg hydrogen per hour, with 53 kWh/kg hydrogen energy required.

This talk will review the efforts that Toyota is making in pursing different technologies in parallel and the challenges ahead, and refer to the impact of the more recently proposed European regulations.