The Hydrogen Stream: Hydrogen-fuelled V8 engine for automobiles from Toyota, Yamaha

Toyota Motor Corporation commissioned Japanese automotive company Yamaha Motor to develop a hydrogen-fuelled V8 engine for automobiles. “The unit is based on the 5.0-liter engine in the Lexus RC F luxury sport coupe, with modifications made to the injectors, cylinder heads, intake manifold, and more, and delivers up to 450 hp at 6,800 rpm and a maximum 540 Nm of torque of at 3,600 rpm,” the company said in a statement. Last year, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Subaru Corporation, Toyota Motor Corporation, Mazda Motor Corporation, and Yamaha Motor announced their intention to team up to research fuel options for internal combustion engines.

Brussels-based Tree Energy Solutions (TES) is accelerating its announced plans to develop the German port of Wilhelmshaven into a “world-scale” hub for importing green gas. “TES Green hydrogen will be primarily produced using solar, wind, and hydropower in countries with abundant renewable energy sources, after which CO₂ will be added to make green CH₄ which will be used as the energy carrier,” the company said Wednesday. The methane will then be transported to Wilhelmshaven through a specially built fleet of ships. “At Wilhelmshaven, the green CH₄ can be converted back into green hydrogen, with the resulting CO₂ being captured and returned to the producing countries by ship in a continuous closed-loop system.”

Penn State scientists unveiled a “highly sensitive system” for detecting hydrogen evolution, which could reportedly help the development of water splitting processes and in general of the hydrogen sector. The “new system … is the most sensitive in the world,” said Venkatraman Gopalan, professor of materials science and engineering and physics at Penn State. According to the researchers, the tool can efficiently screen promising photocatalysts. “If you ranked low in both the categories of hydrogen evolution rate and the mass of the photocatalyst needed, it means it’s a really sensitive system for discovering new photocatalytic materials. And it turns out that our work ranked the best in both categories,” said Huaiyu Wang, who led the study published on Review of Scientific Instruments. 

German manufacturing and engineering company MAN Energy Solutions will invest up to €500 million in its hydrogen-focused subsidiary H-TEC Systems in the coming years. “We are transforming H-TEC Systems into one of the world's leading players in the field of PEM electrolysis. Over the next five to ten years, green hydrogen will become one of the most important primary energy sources for the global economy as it continues to decarbonize,” said Uwe Lauber, CEO of MAN Energy Solutions. H-TEC Systems would benefit from the strong ties with MAN Energy Solutions, “but also from direct access to the expertise and experience of the Volkswagen Group, especially in matters relating to production scaling and the supplier-based series production business.”

Malmö-based chemistry group Perstorp, Finnish state-owned energy company Fortum, and Düsseldorf-based Uniper submitted a €97 million application to the EU Innovation Fund for Project Air, which aims to build a production facility for sustainable methanol in Stenungssund, Sweden. “The project is possible thanks to an innovative usage of biogas, hydrogen from electrolysis and residue streams, as well as carbon dioxide recovered from Perstorp’s own facilities, to produce the methanol. This means the project will utilize carbon atoms that would otherwise become CO2 emissions,” the companies wrote on Thursday. The total investment in Project Air is expected to total €236.3 million.

Indian industry body India Hydrogen Alliance (IH2A) has proposed the creation of the H2Bharat Public-Private Taskforce for a gigawatt-scale national hydrogen hub development plan. The proposal was addressed to NITI Aayog and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), “with the aim of identifying at least five large GW-scale Green hydrogen hubs for development in India, within next 18-months.” NITI Aayog and IH2A proposed to support the development through a seven-point plan, including co-location of Green H2 production and consumption, public funding, a collaboration between the private and the public sector, sovereign green bonds, synergies between different national hydrogen hubs, and support for cluster developments. “Our aim is to bring down the cost of green hydrogen to $2.5/kg by 2025 and $1/kg by 2030. This is possible only by increasing size and scale of hydrogen manufacturing,” commented Amitabh Kant, chief executive of NITI Aayog, commented. 

Hydrogen developer Green Hydrogen International (GHI) presented its Hydrogen City project, an integrated green hydrogen production, storage, and transport hub in Texas that would reach up to 60 GW. “Pipelines will deliver the green hydrogen to Corpus Christi and Brownsville where it will be turned into green ammonia, sustainable aviation fuel and other products, or delivered by pipeline directly to hydrogen power plants and other users around the state,” the company wrote on its website. The project will be built gradually, like other hydrogen projects. The first phase, which should commence operations in 2026, consists of 2 GW of production and two storage caverns at the Piedras Pintas salt dome. Onshore wind and solar will power the electrolyzers. “Eventually, over 50 caverns can be created at the Piedras Pintas salt dome, providing up to 6 TWh of energy storage.”