Toyota Motor Company (Toyota) will enter the ENEOS Tremendous Taikyu Sequence 2023 Spherical 2 NAPAC Fuji SUPER TEC 24 Hours Race, to be held from Could 26 to twenty-eight, with the #32 ORC ROOKIE GR Corolla H2 Idea (hydrogen-powered Corolla) working on liquid hydrogen. It’s the first time on the earth {that a} car will race with liquid hydrogen gas.

Making enhancements with agility within the two months since lacking Suzuka

The liquid hydrogen-powered Corolla was scheduled to compete for the primary time at Spherical 1 Suzuka Tremendous Taikyu 5 Hours Race held on March 18 and 19. Nevertheless, throughout a personal check run at Fuji Worldwide Speedway on March 8, a car fireplace occurred resulting from a hydrogen leak from a gaseous hydrogen pipe within the engine compartment. Because the car couldn’t be recovered in time, Toyota was pressured to desert the race.

Within the two months since lacking Suzuka, the design of the hydrogen piping that triggered the car fireplace has been modified, with security as the best precedence. These adjustments included (1) shifting the hydrogen piping away from scorching areas, and (2) putting in security covers on the hydrogen piping joints to stop loosening and to catch and lead hydrogen to detectors within the occasion of a leak.

We’ve got additionally succeeded in lowering the car weight by over 50 kg over the previous two months, resulting in it exceeding the lap instances of the hydrogen engine-equipped Corolla when it first competed in Could 2021 utilizing gaseous hydrogen gas.

We’ve got continued growth and made enhancements with agility by our motorsports actions with the help of our many companions in taking over this problem, and this has made it attainable for us to enter the Fuji 24 Hours Race.

The problem of liquid hydrogen

A portion of the liquid hydrogen getting used within the hydrogen engine-equipped Corolla is lignite-derived hydrogen produced and transported from Australia in February 2022 by the Suiso Frontier liquid hydrogen provider constructed by Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. (KHI) as a part of the HySTRA^*1 challenge.

The cell liquid hydrogen station that might be used on the circuit was collectively developed by Iwatani Company and Toyota Motor Company. Through the use of liquid hydrogen as gas, tools that was beforehand mandatory to supply compressed gaseous hydrogen, corresponding to compressors and pre-coolers for cooling hydrogen are not wanted. Consequently, the required station set up space could be a quarter the scale of that for gaseous hydrogen stations, and gas may be refilled within the pit space in the identical manner as for gasoline-powered automobiles. As well as, since there is no such thing as a longer the necessity to pressurize when filling, a number of automobiles may be stuffed in succession.

The car’s gas provide system has been modified to a liquid hydrogen system along side the change from gaseous to liquid hydrogen. Nevertheless, the engine itself is identical engine as when the car was working on gaseous hydrogen.

For the reason that vitality density per quantity is elevated by altering the gas to liquid hydrogen, the cruising vary has been doubled with the identical filling time as earlier than, roughly 1.5 minutes^*2. We are going to try to additional enhance engine efficiency, cruising vary, and filling time all year long.

Nevertheless, liquid hydrogen have to be saved at temperatures decrease than -253℃ throughout filling and storage. This poses distinctive challenges in areas corresponding to growing gas pump expertise that may perform in a low-temperature setting, stopping hydrogen from naturally evaporating from the tanks, and establishing laws for vehicle-mounted hydrogen tanks. We are going to proceed to work on overcoming these challenges with the cooperation of our companions within the areas of manufacturing, transporting, and utilizing hydrogen.

Each gaseous and liquid hydrogen have distinctive benefits and challenges, with gaseous hydrogen having the benefit of getting a less complicated system configuration. Toyota will proceed to deal with growing each gaseous and liquid hydrogen to extend gas provide choices and profit from their distinctive traits.

Beginning joint analysis with universities to additional scale back the load of hydrogen engines

Toyota is ready to race on this yr’s Fuji 24 Hours Race with the liquid hydrogen-powered Corolla due to the cooperation of its many companions. We are going to proceed to conduct joint analysis with Kyoto College, the College of Tokyo, and Waseda College on applied sciences to cut back the load of the engines and the scale of liquid hydrogen techniques with a purpose to create ever-better automobiles going ahead.

Toyota will proceed to work on additional efforts with its companions, together with not solely companies and native governments however universities as properly, to comprehend a carbon-neutral society.

It should additionally proceed to work with its companions to extend choices based mostly on its multi-pathway strategy to satisfy the wants of shoppers all over the world.

*1 HySTRA A expertise analysis affiliation consisting of firms corresponding to KHI, Iwasaki, and Electrical Energy Growth Co., Ltd. (Electrical Energy Growth Co., Ltd. withdrew from the affiliation on the finish of March 2023)
*2 Time of hydrogen circulation after attaching the hydrogen provide nozzle

SOURCE: Toyota