Australian “green and clean” brown coal to fuel Toyota’s hydrogen-powered cars
According to Toyota's project manager for the Mirai Fuel Cell Vehicle, Hitoshi Nomasa, Australian brown coal will play a large part in generating the hydrogen fuel required for fuel-cell vehicles (FCVs) in the coming decades. Mr. Nomasa recently stated that the process of obtaining hydrogen fuel from brown coal in Australia's LaTrobe Valley will be "clean and green", saying: "The target is around 2020 for the [hydrogen processing] pilot plant." He also confirmed that the hydrogen would be shipped to Japan in giant container ships. Currently, Toyota sources hydrogen from Japan, but has now contracted Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) to manage the brown-coal hydrogen generation project, which will will use carbon capture and storage (CCS) to prevent the greenhouse gas from entering the atmosphere and contributing to global warming.

Australian brown coal will play a significant part in generating the hydrogen fuel required for the predicted boom in fuel-cell vehicles (FCVs) in the coming decades, says Toyota.

The world's largest car-maker is confident hydrogen-powered fuel-cell vehicles are the way of the future and is injecting huge amounts of cash into the development of FCVs and the refuelling stations to support them.

And its hydrogen experts say that by 2020, Toyota will begin processing brown coal from Australia to help create the fuel to power FCVs of the future.

However, Toyota's project manager for the Mirai FCV, Hitoshi Nomasa, told motoring.com.au during a test drive of the car in Japan last week that the process of obtaining hydrogen fuel from brown coal in Victoria's LaTrobe Valley will be "clean and green".

"The target is around 2020 for the [hydrogen processing] pilot plant," he said through an interpreter, confirming that the hydrogen would be shipped to Japan in giant contained ships.



Toyota currently sources its hydrogen fuel from sewerage sludge and natural gas in Japan, but has contracted Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) to manage the brown-coal hydrogen generation project.

KHI will use carbon capture and storage (CCS) or carbon sequestration – an expensive method of mitigating CO2 -- to prevent the greenhouse gas from entering the atmosphere and contributing to global warming.

"You can say that it's quite clean and green, because the brown coal generating the hydrogen, according to KHI, for this processing when the CO2 is produced, is converted to the CCS method of CO2 capture and storage. Therefore that means no CO2," said Nomasa.

"The CO2 is underground.

"Two weeks ago at the Latrobe valley in Victoria, I visited and I felt a lot of promise there."

Plans are underway to expand the Victorian operation to be one of the main sources of hydrogen fuel for Japan by 2025.

Documents released by Toyota state that the brown coal from the Latrobe Valley is an 'unused resource' and therefore 'cheap'. The documents refer to the Australian-sourced hydrogen supply chain as 'substantially CO2-free'.

It remains to be seen whether the use of brown coal – including the energy required to mine and process it into hydrogen, pump the CO2 by-product underground and ship it to Japan – will spoil the 'zero emissions' status of hydrogen vehicles like the Mirai, which emits only water from its tailpipe.

Carbon capture and storage has in the past led to leaks, whereby the CO2 (which turns to liquid under high pressure when pumped deep underground) can leak into water reservoirs and/or the ocean.

The Mirai FCV (click here to read our review) costs around $80,000 in Japan and it takes about three to five minutes to fill its hydrogen tank, which currently costs around $50 per fill in Japan. The range of the vehicle, which is powered by an electric motor, is between 500 and 600km.

The Mirai's chief engineer, Yoshikazu Tanaka, said: "We expect hydrogen to be widely used as an automotive fuel in the future," and that it's "an excellent source of energy that emits no CO2 in use."

The Mirai is already on sale in Japan and will be offered in regions with hydrogen infrastructure, including Europe and the US. Toyota admits sales of the Mirai will remain modest until hydrogen infrastructure ramps up, with predictions of just 3000 sales by 2017.

Toyota officials concede the current Mirai is unlikely to be sold in Australia due to the lack of infrastructure here, where there is only one refilling station, which is owned by Korean rival Hyundai in Sydney.

Nevertheless, the company expects to offer hydrogen-powered cars in this country by the time the Mirai reaches its second generation in around six year's time.

Toyota Australia media and external affairs manager Beck Angel said it's too early to say where hydrogen fuel for Australian motorists would be sourced, and denied it was inappropriate for a car being touted as zero-emissions to be fundamentally powered by brown coal.

"There's a range of ways to source hydrogen – I can't say what's right or what's wrong – but globally Toyota is looking at a wide range of sources -- brown coal being one -- and we're certainly interested in solar and wind," said Angel.

"It's early stages for Toyota Australia. We do need to look at a whole range of sources."