Innovative Capsules Bring Toyota’s Hydrogen Fuel Cell Dreams One Step Closer To Reality

Japanese automaking giant Toyota has come up with a novel sidestep around the refueling stations that have proven to be a problem its hydrogen fuel-cell EV dreams around the world.

It’s trying to sidestep them completely.

Toyota this week showed its latest hydrogen capsule update during the Mobility Show Bizweek in Japan, with an evolution of its hydrogen capsule technology weighing 11 pounds (5kg) each, filled to the brim with hydrogen gas.

At 16 inches long and 7 inches in diameter (400mm x 180mm), the capsules, developed with its subsidiary Woven Planet Holdings, can be used in everything from fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) to cooking, with Rinnai also exhibiting a compatible emergency kitchen.

Widespread adoption of the technology would allow Toyota to commercialize its FCEV fleet by letting its customers simply recharge their vehicles at depots that are cleaner, more convenient and simpler to use. They could even be stored at existing gas stations, like barbecue gas bottles.

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It would also provide instant, convenient energy in emergency situations, generating electricity as a fuel cell or allowing people to burn the hydrogen gas in cookers.

The portable cartridges are much lighter than the first generation, shown in 2022, and Toyota and Woven Planet plan Proof of Concept trials in Japan this year.

Toyota, along with its development partner BMW, Hyundai Motor Group and Honda, has been the driving force behind FCEVs and stubbornly maintains its position that battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are not the way forward for the auto industry.

It insists that hydrogen is the better long-term solution, because its use emits no carbon dioxide (CO2), and it can be delivered with very low supply-chain emissions if it is generated using green energy, like biomass, geothermal, wind or solar energy.

The cartridges, which Toyota plans to deliver to consumers using a similar business model to barbecue gas bottles or battery swaps for electric scooters, will offer hydrogen to people close to where they live, rather than in isolated prototype hydrogen refueling stations buried in industrial backwaters.