近日,丰田公司宣布推出便携式氢气罐,旨在进一步简化燃料电池汽车(FCEV)的使用流程,为车主提供更加便捷的加氢体验。通过这一创新产品,车主无需再排队等待加氢站服务,而是可以在家中轻松更换氢气罐或补充氢气。
丰田公司成功实现了氢气罐的小型化设计,使其具有极高的便携性,仿佛是一款背包大小的氢气存储设备。这一设计不仅使得氢气罐便于携带和存储,还极大地提升了燃料电池汽车的实用性和灵活性。
理论上,这些便携式氢气罐能够为多种设备提供动力,从户外炉灶到汽车等,适用范围广泛。当氢气耗尽时,用户只需简单地更换新罐或对氢气罐进行充气,操作过程简便快捷。这一创新设计有望为燃料电池汽车的普及和应用提供有力支持。
燃料电池汽车以其尾气排放无害、加氢过程简便等优势,被视为未来汽车产业的发展趋势。然而,加氢基础设施的不完善一直是制约氢燃料电池汽车发展的关键因素之一。丰田公司此次推出的便携式氢气罐,正是针对这一问题提出的有效解决方案。通过让车主在家中轻松更换氢气罐,丰田公司希望能够消除车主在使用氢动力汽车过程中的不便,推动氢燃料汽车的广泛应用。
据悉,丰田公司尚未透露每个便携式氢气罐的具体储氢量。但从计算机生成图像上的标签来看,其容量为4.7升,压力为525帕,相当于在32摄氏度温度下可存储161克氢气。第二代丰田Mirai储氢瓶的总容量为5.65公斤,因此,要获得相同数量的氢气,至少需要35个这样的便携式氢气罐。虽然单个罐体的储氢量有限,但丰田公司表示正在不断优化设计,以提升储氢效率和便携性。
丰田公司表示,便携式储氢罐的设计旨在让氢气成为一种熟悉且安全的能源,能够在各种日常情况下使用。首个将这一理念付诸实践的应用是与林内公司合作开发的氢动力炊具,该炊具已在日本移动展商务周2024上展出,受到了广泛关注。
尽管丰田的便携式氢气储罐尚未实现大规模生产,但该公司正在积极寻找初创企业和其他合作伙伴,以进一步开发和销售类似电池的储氢盒。丰田公司表示,他们将继续致力于推动氢能源技术的创新和应用,为实现更加环保、高效的能源利用贡献力量。
·原文·
Toyota’s Portable Hydrogen Cartridges Could Make Owning An FCEV A Lot Easier
No more waiting in line to refuel your Mirai–just order a fresh batch of cartridges and top up at home. That’s the idea, at least. Toyota found a way to downsize the typical consumer hydrogen tank.
Its portable hydrogen cartridges are small enough to be carried like a backpack.
In theory, they could power anything from stoves to cars. When they're empty, they can just be replaced or refilled.
Fuel cell electric vehicles or FCEVs were supposed to be the future. No harmful emissions coming out of the tailpipe and a refueling process as easy as getting gas in a conventionally powered car–that was the promise. Instead, owning a hydrogen-powered car is a miserable experience, as we–and other outlets–found out earlier this year.
The refueling infrastructure is crumbling and owners are filing lawsuits and calling for buybacks of their clean EVs. However, Toyota, which is still pushing for broader adoption of hydrogen-fueled vehicles as part of its so-called “multi-pathway approach,” might have the solution to the problem it might have inadvertently created in the first place.
Instead of waiting in line to top up your hydrogen-powered Mirai, wouldn’t it be nice if you could just change out the hydrogen tanks at home the same way you would change the depleted batteries in an alarm clock? That’s exactly the idea behind Toyota’s new portable hydrogen cartridges.
Gallery: Toyota Portable Hydrogen Cartridges
In theory, they could power anything from camp stoves to an entire house, seeing how hydrogen can be used either as a combustible fuel or an energy source for fuel cells like the ones in Toyota's own Mirai or Hyundai's Nexo. The cartridges are much smaller and lighter than what's currently available in production FCEVs–about as big as a big camping backpack–and the idea is you could just swap them out when they're empty, like propane tanks.
Toyota didn't say how much hydrogen one cartridge could store, but the label on the computer-generated images says 4.7 liters and a pressure of 525 bar. At a temperature of 32 degrees, that equates to a grand total of 161 grams of hydrogen. A second-generation Toyota Mirai has a total capacity of 5.65 kilograms, so you would need no fewer than 35 cartridges to get the same quantity of hydrogen. Not ideal, but more work could be done to improve on the formula.
Toyota said the portable tanks are designed “to make hydrogen a familiar and safe energy source that can be used in a variety of everyday situations.” The first application that puts this idea to good use is a hydrogen-powered cooker developed with Rinnai Corporation, which was on display during Japan Mobility Show Bizweek 2024 which ran until last Friday.
Although Toyota’s downsized hydrogen tanks aren’t mass-produced yet, the company said it’s looking for start-ups and other partners to further develop and sell the battery-like cartridges. In other words, it could be a while until we’ll see a hydrogen-powered car with replaceable fuel cartridges on the road. But one can dream, right?
作者:Iulian Dnistran
(转自:氢能源燃料电池电动汽车)
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