Toyota's Fuel Cell R&D And Production Plant Starts Operation In Beijing.
Toyota’s Fuel Cell R&D And Production Plant Starts Operation In Beijing.
Fuel Cell Works | August 23, 2024
On August 20, Huafeng Fuel Cell Co., Ltd. (FCTS) and United Fuel Cell System Research and Development (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (FCRD) officially commenced production at their new plant in the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone.
This marks that the fuel cell project jointly promoted by Toyota Motor Corporation (hereinafter referred to as: Toyota) and its local Chinese partners has officially entered a new stage. In order to contribute to China's vision of carbon peak and carbon neutrality, through the localization efforts of new quality productivity, it will further accelerate the research and development and market input of products suitable for the Chinese market, and promote the popularization and application of hydrogen energy technology.
At the new plant commissioning ceremony, Toyota China General Manager Tatsuro Ueda congratulated the new plant and said in his speech: In the Chinese market, hydrogen energy technology is used in many application scenarios such as cold chain and logistics represented by buses and heavy trucks, and is growing at an astonishing rate. FCTS products have always been well received by customers in the Chinese market for their high quality and high durability. We look forward to the advantages of hydrogen energy technology being further utilized in practical applications such as trunk logistics in the future, and to achieving a carbon-neutral society through the popularization of FCEVs. For the sake of the smiles of our customers, as a parent company, Toyota will fully support and implement a lean production system that adopts the Toyota Production System in the new Beijing plant, firmly rooted in manufacturing culture, and continue to provide high-quality and cost-effective products to the Chinese and even global markets.
Zhang Guoqiang, Chairman of Beijing SinoHytec Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as SinoHytec), said: "Today is an important step for SinoHytec and Toyota to deepen their cooperation and plan for the future. Thank you for witnessing this milestone event. The establishment of FCTS is a strategic decision made by both parties based on their deep insight into the global energy transition and a high degree of consensus on the future development potential of fuel cell technology. We believe that by combining the unique advantages of both parties in technology, market and management, FCTS will become a new engine to promote the vigorous development of the fuel cell industry. We look forward to continuing to deepen cooperation with all partners, jointly drawing a grand blueprint for the hydrogen economy, and contributing to building a cleaner and low-carbon world...more
https://fuelcellsworks.com/news/toyotas-fuel-cell-rd-and-production-plant-starts-operation-in-beijing-2/
Toyota is light years ahead of most. Meet their hydrogen fuel cell moon rover
https://mag.toyota.co.uk/toyota-lunar-cruiser/
= new reply since forum marked as read
Almost all of these "reports" about battery fires come from advocates of the tiresome, extremely dangerous, and exceedingly old "hydrogen economy" fantasy, which somehow, after half a century of bullshit, refuses to die a well deserved death.
Indeed, stored energy is dangerous, as well we know from the many disasters, included but not limited to fires and explosions, involved in the use of stored solar energy - which is, after all what dangerous fossil fuels are at the end of the day.
The reason that we see more battery fires than we see hydrogen explosions is because after decade after decade of advertising a putative "hydrogen economy" as "green" - much of it by dangerous fossil fuel companies themselves, is that consumer hydrogen - a very, very, very bad idea - remains trivial, whereas batteries are not; batteries now, for better or worse, are a huge industry, with widespread consumer use. I have some myself, including those in my hybrid Toyota Camry, which recovers some of the energy of a dangerous fossil fuel that would otherwise be wasted. About a year ago, my previous hybrid Toyota Camry was totaled in a very serious accident, and though I thought, the battery might catch fire, it didn't.
Of course, dangerous fossil fuels are the main source of even more dangerous hydrogen, the fossil fuel most used being dangerous natural gas, which is actually safer than hydrogen, as it has a much higher critical temperature, higher viscosity, and, unlike hydrogen, is compatible with many more metals than hydrogen is without producing hydrogen embrittlement, a major issue in materials science. The use of coal as a source of hydrogen is dominant in China, which is often advertised here, in a classic bit of "bait and switch" fossil fuel marketing scheme as coming from the useless, trivial and extremely expensive solar industry which has failed miserably to address extreme global heating, which is accelerating under the weight of marketing bullshit.
The caption:
Progress on Catalyst Development for the Steam Reforming of Biomass and Waste Plastics Pyrolysis Volatiles: A Review Laura Santamaria, Gartzen Lopez, Enara Fernandez, Maria Cortazar, Aitor Arregi, Martin Olazar, and Javier Bilbao, Energy & Fuels 2021 35 (21), 17051-17084]
As it happens, the garbage trucks of the Waste Management Corporation around here, advertise themselves as "green" since they run on "clean" natural gas, which is less odious from a thermodynamic perspective than if they reformed the methane to make hydrogen at an energy loss. I'm sure they would like the paper cited above to be promoted.
Big companies often engage in "research" projects marketed as "green" as part of their advertising budget.
As I frequently point out, this includes our friends at Exxon who have decided that their previous marketing efforts including climate denial doesn't play well in their marketing efforts, but the hydrogen fantasy - which will only entrench their products further - does:
Exxon rebranding fossil fuels as hydrogen:
A Giant Climate Lie: When they're selling hydrogen, what they're really selling is fossil fuels.