{"id":8949,"date":"2024-11-30T09:50:02","date_gmt":"2024-11-30T14:50:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/toyota-liquid-hydrogen-system\/8949\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T07:19:53","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T11:19:53","slug":"toyota-liquid-hydrogen-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/toyota-liquid-hydrogen-system\/8949\/","title":{"rendered":"Toyota shows a concept that reuses boil-off gas from liquid hydrogen vehicle tanks to cut wasted fuel and is seeking development partners"},"content":{"rendered":"In November 2024, Toyota showed a concept for reusing the hydrogen that vaporizes inside the tank of a liquid hydrogen vehicle. According to Toyota<\/a>, the concept includes a self-pressurizer meant to tackle one of the problems of liquid hydrogen storage, namely the loss of this boil-off gas. It was shown at the final round of the 2024 ENEOS Super Taikyu race series in Japan, where Toyota also entered a GR Corolla running on liquid hydrogen, a system the brand introduced in 2023.\n\nIf it works as Toyota describes, the concept could improve the energy efficiency of a liquid hydrogen system. Toyota itself calls it a concept<\/strong> and says it is looking for partners to develop the technology together.\n

How Toyota\u2019s concept tackles the challenges of storing liquid hydrogen<\/h2>\nThe fact is that liquid hydrogen provides even greater density than gaseous one, which means that it is capable of storing more energy in the same volume. That gives liquid hydrogen more range potential for the same tank size.\n\nHowever, storing hydrogen as a liquid is not without its problems, mainly boiling off, where the liquid hydrogen turns into gas. This escaping gas usually goes to the atmosphere, thus lowering the general fuel economy.\n\nToyota\u2019s concept sends this boil-off gas to a self-pressurizer, a device that raises pressure without relying on external energy, so the gas can be turned back into usable fuel for the engine.\n\nThe core of this innovation is in the possibility of collecting boil-off gas that would otherwise be wasted and using compressive force to turn it into fuel. Toyota says its device uses the pressure of the boil-off gas itself to raise the pressure by two to four times, enough to produce reusable fuel without adding more energy.\n\nIf realized, that would mean less hydrogen wasted while the vehicle is running, since the boil-off gas generated in the tank while driving has until now been released into the atmosphere without being used. Some surplus boil-off gas is still released during the pressurization process. In the concept, that surplus is fed into a small fuel cell stack, which makes electricity that can power parts such as the liquid hydrogen pump motor. Toyota expects this to improve energy efficiency. Any gas not used there is converted into water vapor by a catalyst and released outside the vehicle.\n

The cold temperatures and the hydrogen pump<\/h2>\nA major problem with storing liquid hydrogen is the technical one, namely the low temperature at which hydrogen needs to be stored in the liquid state. Toyota\u2019s system works at a very low temperature of -253 degrees Celsius during filling and storage. The pumps have to work in that cold, and Washington State University professor Jacob Leachman says hydrogen pumps are the most failure-prone components in all hydrogen systems, cryogenic or gaseous.\n\nThe benefit Toyota describes is energy efficiency. Electricity from the small fuel cell stack<\/strong> could help run the pump motor and supplement what the alternator provides, if the concept is realized.\n

What a hydrogen researcher says about Toyota\u2019s approach<\/h2>\nDr. Jacob Leachman, who heads the Hydrogen Properties for Energy Research (HYPER) Laboratory at Washington State University, commented on Toyota\u2019s approach in an email to The Verge<\/a>. He noted that sealing a container of liquid hydrogen and letting it boil would push the pressure above 140 megapascals, around 20,000 psi.\n\nHe said Toyota appears to have developed a hydrogen pump that uses part of the cold energy for compression, an advance that anyone developing cold hydrogen vehicles needs<\/strong>. That is an outside expert\u2019s reading of the design, not a test result.\n\nWhen it was shown, the self-pressurizer was still a concept. Toyota said in November 2024 that it was looking for partners to help make the technology a reality. If the idea works as intended, it could reduce the hydrogen that liquid hydrogen vehicles lose to boil-off.\n\n

This article was first published on November 30, 2024, and corrected on October 28, 2026 to remove inaccurate statements.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In November 2024, Toyota showed a concept for reusing the hydrogen that vaporizes inside the tank of a liquid hydrogen … <\/p>\n

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