Green Energy Digest Reports on Waste to Energy
From today’s Green Energy Digest:
During the LA Auto show, Toyota announced that it will using animal waste from the state’s Central Valley to power clean cars and trucks such as the Toyota Mirai and hydrogen-powered semi trucks currently being piloted at the Port of Long Beach.
Called the Tri-Gen Project, Toyota hopes that participating in the demonstration will help support moving fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen fueling forward. “We believe hydrogen technology has the potential to become the powertrain of the future,” said Doug Murtha, a group vice president for strategic planning with Toyota’s North American operations. It will be “a key milestone in Toyota’s larger commitment to clean mobility.”
No one doubts that the chemical energy in animal waste can be harvested and used to power vehicles. But how feasible is this in a country that consumes 392 million gallons of gasoline per day?
The reader can’t help but wonder how sincere Toyota is in this. Given the trajectory of hydrogen over the last 50 years, do they really believe it’s “the powertrain of the future?” Nope. On top of that, do they really think that converting animal waste to biofuel is practical? Ah….no.
This truly does seem odd. They must know that hydrogen is a carrier of energy more than it is a fuel. I’m not certain how the economics and efficiencies of this play out. Maybe if Toyota is paid by the farmers to cart the waste, that could factor in to make it plausible for the Toyota and their customers. Maybe it’s a distraction to confuse their competition. Hard to say.
It’s technobabble, written for the 95% of people who can’t do the math, and the other 4.99% of people who can, but who will just let it slide.
Craig,
Is converting animal waste into a renewable biofuel as a solution for the replacement of gasoline/diesel in developed nations like the US?
You are correct, the answer is No !
Is the project economically feasible as a automotive fuel addition to any future hydrogen fuel supply, again the answer is No.
Is it simply feel good green wash ? Yep, no doubt about that.
Hydrogen is only feasible as a ‘top down’ zero emission vehicle solution created by the absence of a ESD capacity in EV’s.
EV ESD technology awaits a more economically elegant solution. Current battery technology lacks capacity and convenience to satisfy current expectations.
The real problem is a lithium battery has limitations, not the least of which is being misnamed. “lithium batteries are really ‘cobalt and lithium’ .
While the supply problems of lithium may be increasing, these are minor in comparison to the problems associated with cobalt production.
Cobalt is mined in nations with shocking records for human rights corruption, environmental devastation, forced child labour etc. ( ( 78% from Democratic Republic of the Congo etc)
Another problem is the supply of rare earths, cobalt and other essential elements are rapidly being controlled by the Peoples Republic of China which takes a more ah,..’pragmatic’ approach to human and environmental rights.
In time this could be an issue of national security for the US and Western na6ions.
Potential lithium substitutes in primary batteries include calcium, magnesium, mercury and zinc etc.
Unfortunately, all these substitutes face similar resource difficulties as lithium/cobalt. Switching from lithium-ion/cobalt to another type of battery technology would be great, except all the alternatives are currently impractical.
Adding the cost and difficulty of recycling all those batteries and guaranteeing supply to a market rapidly being controlled by the PRC is making lithium cobalt battery production look less and less beneficial for both the environment and national security.
(Do you really want to surrender a repetition of 1970’s OPEC, but this time with the infinitely shrewder and more powerful PRC ? )
Until these problems can be solved by developing radically different ESD technology, hydrogen will remain a viable option.
Both Toyota and Hyundai see hydrogen and HFCV development as a good hedging bet.