Only Solution. A fueling station for the Mirai must adhere to the most recent Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) hydrogen fueling interface protocol standards or regulations that may replace such SAE requirements. The Mirai is a hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicle.
In This Article...
How is a hydrogen automobile fueled?
A hydrogen FCV may be fueled similarly to how you would refuel your car. Fill the tank by simply connecting a nozzle from an approved hydrogen dispenser at a public station. FCVs may be refueled in as little as 5 minutes, and the refueling times are similarly comparable.
Some FCVs have fuel efficiency close to 70 MPGe and can go over 300 miles on a single tank of hydrogen fuel, which is more than the distance between St. Louis and Chicago (miles per gasoline gallon equivalent).
What volume of hydrogen is required to fill a Toyota Mirai?
A 2021 Toyota Mirai established a Guinness World Record for the longest distance traveled by a fuel-cell vehicle without refueling by traveling 845 miles on a single hydrogen tank. There are a few restrictions on that record, though.
According to a press release from Toyota, the Mirai was primarily driven during rush hour. This allowed drivers to go very slowly, which increases the Mirai’s range. Additionally, it was mostly driven in Southern California loops rather than straight lines. According to Toyota, the record attempt took place during the two days of August 23 and 24, 2021, covering 473 miles on the first day and 372 miles on the second.
This was a very unusual driving style and was not at all practical in the actual world because the crew used hypermiling techniques to optimize range, such as turning off equipment and overinflating the tires.
The Mirai has a tank life of 357 miles in Limited form and 402 miles in XLE form, according to the EPA, with the LE earning higher fuel economy than the Honda Clarity. The figures obtained by Toyota, which are similar to a regular driving range that is more than double the EPA rating, won’t be experienced by most drivers.
Even yet, this is a noteworthy accomplishment all by itself. According to Toyota, the Mirai achieved 152 MPGe and traveled the distance on only 12.4 pounds of hydrogen. On a weight basis, that is less than the weight of two gallons of gas, or more than 420 mpg, with a gallon of fuel weighing roughly 6.3 pounds. The Mirai weights 4,255 pounds, which is significantly less than a comparable battery-electric vehicle for a large, premium sedan.
Additionally, Toyota claims that the Mirai produces “zero emissions” when driving and cleans the air.
A large portion of hypermiling entails, at the very least, traveling very slowly. But it’s a useful mental exercise to consider how much efficiency you might be giving up by adjusting to standard driving speeds and patterns.
Over the years, we’ve reported about a variety of hypermilers, such the Jaguar XJ-S driver who got 36 mpg or the pair that drove their Jetta TDI 9,505 miles across the United States while averaging 67 mpg. In a battery-electric vehicle, you may travel many, many more miles on a charge if you’re willing to drive slowly enough.
At least one possible fuel-cell device claims to have a 1,000-mile range while going to great lengths to achieve it. That supercar, the Hyperion XP-1, likewise boasts a stated top speed of 221 mph.
Stunts like the hypermiling one match Toyota’s continuing efforts to advance fuel cells. As part of kits to replace the diesel engines in Class 8 semi trucks, the business recently announced its intention to manufacture fuel-cell modules in the United States. As with previous record runs, this most recent experiment doesn’t really prove much, but the numbers are what matter.
A Toyota Mirai uses what kind of fuel?
A new era of zero-emission mobility fueled by hydrogen has arrived with the Mirai.
The Japanese word for Mirai is “future,” yet in order for our innovative Toyota Fuel Cell System technology to be a success, it must be appealing to and available to people now. Despite having a cutting-edge drivetrain and utilizing a novel fuel, the Mirai is a typical mid-size, four-door sedan that is just as useful, secure, and simple to operate as a conventionally powered family car.
On a full tank of hydrogen, it will travel as far as a comparable-sized gasoline vehicle, and filling up from empty takes between three and five minutes. The benefits include a quiet, comfortable ride, high performance, and only water vapor emissions from the exhaust.
A interaction between hydrogen and oxygen generates energy in the Toyota Fuel Cell System seen in the Mirai.
In the same way that you purchase gasoline or diesel at a filling station, you refuel with hydrogen fuel. The fuel is kept in high-pressure tanks and pumped into a fuel cell stack, where the air’s hydrogen and oxygen interact to produce electricity.
Similar to a gasoline-electric hybrid, the voltage of the electricity is increased to power the electric motor. Every time the car brakes or slows down, more energy is stored in a battery, which results in even improved fuel efficiency.
We are the first company in the world to provide a system with a power density of 3.1 kW per liter thanks to our decades of research and development in hybrid electric technology.
Is hydrogen fuel less expensive than regular fuel?
Although hydrogen fuel is four times more expensive than gasoline and about $16 per gallon, it is far more efficient than gasoline. The cost of a fillup is high even though hydrogen cars, which have electric engines, have cruising ranges that are more than 350 miles longer than any battery-electric and some gas-powered vehicles.
The financial blow has been considerably mitigated by incentives. The state offers a $4,500 clean-car refund, and manufacturers supply refueling cards with three years’ worth of credit put on them. The first year of leasing a hydrogen vehicle, which is what most drivers do instead of buying, is mostly covered by that refund. New hydrogen vehicles cost around $60,000 and don’t come in as many model variants as battery-powered electric vehicles.
Aaron Slavin and his wife, who reside in the Altadena, California, neighborhood of Los Angeles, created a spreadsheet to analyze the benefits and drawbacks of driving a hydrogen-fueled vehicle. They came to the conclusion that keeping a gas-electric hybrid “didn’t pencil out.”
Aaron Slavin refueled his 2017 Toyota Mirai at a one-bay hydrogen pump concealed at a typical gas station in South Pasadena and declared, “I’m a big fan of this car; I preach about them.
Slavin, a producer of performing arts, claimed that because of his employment, lack of frequent commuting, and backup hybrid SUV, he is an ideal fit for the vehicle.
Last year, a fuel manufacturing facility explosion restricted supply for months, leaving some hydrogen stations with empty tanks, leaving some drivers stranded or demanding lengthy treks to alternate stations, making the second car essential. Slavin turned to a smartphone app that offered a real-time inventory of fuel at each station in response to the issue, which some drivers dubbed the “hydropocalypse.”
Although the gasoline issue has been fixed, it prompted a concern. Our lease expires in April, so I really need to consider our options, Slavin added. ” The automobile is nice, however the fuel situation worries me.
Hydrogen energy production has long been an alluring objective. After all, hydrogen is the most common element in the universe, it is lightweight and energy-dense, and when used in transportation, it doesn’t release greenhouse gases but rather little pools of water instead.
But this clean-burning fuel has a carbon history. About 95% of hydrogen fuel is created via an energy-intensive method that relies on methane, the deadliest of the planet-warming gases, even though once it is formed it drives zero-emission electric motors. Because of this, it is challenging for certain environmental organizations to promote hydrogen vehicles.
Director of the Sierra Club in California Kathryn Phillips said, “We need to remove methane out of the system, not create a dependency on creating more. ” The current utilization of state subsidies for hydrogen fuel cells is not the ideal one when seen from an environmental perspective.
Two responses are given by supporters: Why not trap and use the methane that is currently being released unregulated into the environment from landfills and oil and gas plants while the state makes the transition to a zero-carbon economy? Why not switch to a technique that doesn’t use methane and uses the state’s excess solar energy instead, making the manufacturing clean and environmentally friendly?
Hydrogen vehicles can’t compete in a key area: price, while having benefits over battery electrics or gasoline automobiles in terms of quicker filling, less weight, and greater range. The cost of a typical municipal bus could be $450,000. Similar standards for a hydrogen bus cost more like $1 million.
Lewis Fulton, a specialist in transportation at UC Davis, claims that hydrogen “presents numerous separate chicken-and-egg challenges simultaneously.
He asserted that there won’t be more hydrogen fuelling stations until there are more vehicles built and bought. Furthermore, unless there are sufficient gas stations, customers might be concerned about getting stranded and may not feel safe operating the vehicles.
The only solution, according to Fulton, is a really strong policy push. “In the state, there is already one going on, but I’m not sure if it’s big enough.
As part of its ongoing conflict with the Trump administration, which last year took away the state’s jurisdiction to establish its own tailpipe pollution rules, California’s efforts to promote the market for hydrogen cars could be hindered. Car manufacturers who supported looser emissions regulations with the federal government will pay a price by having their vehicles removed from the state’s fleet.
Toyota, which sided with Washington, would be excluded at a time when the business is stepping up its hydrogen program and is anticipated to dramatically increase customer awareness of hydrogen vehicles due to its position as a major multinational automaker.
Supporters played minimized the problem. Eckerle acknowledged that there was an issue. He continued, however, that there has been no sign from automakers that they plan to back out of their commitment to producing hydrogen-powered vehicles.
Why is fuel made of hydrogen so expensive?
The majority of hydrogen utilized in the United States is generated on-site or nearby, often at sizable industrial facilities. It is still necessary to build the infrastructure for supplying hydrogen to the vast national network of fuelling stations needed for the widespread deployment of fuel cell electric vehicles. Building out these distribution networks is the primary objective of the initial rollout for vehicles and stations, which is predominantly done in southern and northern California.
Currently, there are three ways to deliver hydrogen:
Pipeline: This method is the least expensive for delivering large amounts of hydrogen, but it has a limited capacity due to the fact that there are only 1,600 miles of hydrogen transport pipes in the United States at the moment. These pipelines are situated close to significant chemical and petroleum refineries in Illinois, California, and the Gulf Coast.
High-Pressure Tube Trailers: High-Pressure Tube Trailers are expensive and are often used for transporting compressed hydrogen gas over lengths of 200 miles or fewer by truck, railway, ship, or barge.
Cryogenic liquefaction is a technique that cools hydrogen to a temperature where it turns into a liquid, producing liquefied hydrogen tankers. Despite the cost of the liquefaction process, hydrogen may be delivered by truck, railcar, ship, or barge over larger distances more effectively than using high-pressure tube trailers. If the rate of consumption of the liquefied hydrogen is insufficient, it will boil out (or evaporate) from its containment vessels. The distribution and consumption rates of hydrogen must be precisely coordinated as a result.
There are numerous difficulties in developing an infrastructure for hydrogen transport and distribution to thousands of individual fuelling stations in the future. Hydrogen is more expensive to transport, store, and deliver to the place of use than all other fuels because it has a lower energy density per unit volume than all other fuels. The initial capital expenses of constructing a new hydrogen pipeline network are considerable, and the properties of hydrogen create special difficulties in the design of compressors and pipeline materials. However, as hydrogen can be created from a wide range of resources, regional or even local hydrogen production can make the best use of available resources while reducing distribution issues.
Between centralized and dispersed manufacturing, there are trade-offs to take into account. Centralized generation of hydrogen in sizable plants lowers production costs but raises delivery expenses. For instance, producing hydrogen at filling stations reduces distribution costs but raises production costs due to the expense of setting up on-site production facilities.
Research and development initiatives by the government and business are removing the obstacles to effective hydrogen delivery. The Office of Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies has more information about hydrogen delivery.
How much does a Mirai’s fuel cost?
Some automobiles are pricey to buy, while others are pricey to own. The average price of hydrogen fuel is $16 per kilogram, thus filling up a Toyota Mirai might be rather expensive. Since the Mirai typically holds 5 pounds, your cost would be about $80.
It should be mentioned, nevertheless, that hydrogen fuel is significantly more effective than gasoline. On the interstate, a Mirai can do 71 miles per kilo, and 76 in the city.
Can a hydrogen car be fueled at home?
The SimpleFuelTM team is adamant about using clean, renewable energy sources to achieve energy independence, lower pollution, boost energy efficiency, improve the environment, and strengthen the economy. By giving worldwide consumers who choose zero emission fuel cell electric vehicles a comfortable alternative fuelling choice, SimpleFuelTM will promote the development of a hydrogen infrastructure around the world.
Customers of warehouses, community centers, municipalities, small enterprises, and other places may find it easier to access FCEVs with SimpleFuelTM, a compact and cost-effective fuelling solution. Additionally, the SimpleFuelTM appliance tops off a tank in a matter of minutes and generates hydrogen on-site, boosting convenience and enabling indoor installations without the need for hydrogen transportation.
Years of knowledge in system integration, compression, and electrolysis are brought to the table by the SimpleFuelTM team. With approximately 520 compressors deployed worldwide and counting, PDC is the leading supplier of hydrogen fuelling compressors for the automobile, bus, heavy-duty vehicle, and utility vehicle markets.