Toyota’s prototype 'cartridge' is a way to make hydrogen portable
<i>&gt; &quot;one hydrogen cartridge is assumed to generate enough electricity to operate a typical household microwave for approximately 3-4 hours.&quot;</i><p>So, let&#x27;s oversimplify and say that a typical household microwave consumes 1200W continuously. That&#x27;s about 4.8kWh over 4 hours.<p>Given current Lithium battery energy densities (18650: 200Wh&#x2F;kg) then you&#x27;d need 24kg of lithium batteries to supply the same amount of energy.<p>The cartridge Toyota has developed manages to do this for 5.5kg. Not bad, but not a paradigm shift, considering you have to build a logistics network to refill the cartridges.<p><i>&gt; In its press release, Toyota acknowledges that most hydrogen is made from fossil fuels and so not exactly green. But it thinks that it&#x27;ll be generated with low carbon emissions in the future, and that the cartridges could help with some of the infrastructure issues. </i><p>If we could all stop shilling for &quot;Green Hydrogen&quot; that would be great. Batteries can be charged today from low-carbon sources, and the electric grid is already present in most places you&#x27;d drive an EV, and certainly more places than have a preexisting hydrogen cartridge distribution network.<p><i>&gt; However, Toyota seems to be pitching the cartridges for personal and home use, but it&#x27;s not yet clear what you&#x27;d use them for.</i><p>In a world where Lithium batteries exist and the technology has far more R&amp;D investment, what <i>would</i> you use these for? Why is Toyota still throwing cash into the hydrogen money pit?