Plug signs basic engineering and design package contract for 500MW electrolyzer in Europe
Ballard receives follow-on order from CPKC Rail for 12 additional fuel cell engines

Chiyoda Corporation and Toyota jointly developing large-scale electrolysis systems

Chiyoda Corporation and Toyota Motor Corporation will jointly develop large-scale electrolysis systems and construct a strategic partnership and have signed a basic agreement on cooperation.

The overall goal is to contribute to achieving the government targets for the introduction of electrolysis equipment both in Japan and overseas as part of the Basic Strategy on Hydrogen formulated by the government.

The government targets for the introduction of electrolysis equipment are set at about 10% (approx. 15 GW) of the share of Japan-based companies (including parts manufacturers) within the 134 GW forecast for introduction globally by 2030.

The production and mass production technologies for electrolysis cell stacks using the fuel cell technology held by Toyota and the processing plant design technologies and large-scale plant construction technologies held by Chiyoda will be brought together to develop a large-scale electrolysis system that can be competitive. This will allow adaptation to the rapidly expanding hydrogen production markets both inside and outside Japan.

001

Electrolysis equipment (Highly integrated water electrolysis stack group produced by Toyota)


002

Large-scale electrolysis system (Smart scalable engineering by Chiyoda Corporation)


Specifically, the goal is to develop an electrolysis system with high hydrogen production efficiency while being the world’s smallest in size.

To be able to respond to the various needs of customers, such as the amount of hydrogen used or limitations on plant floor area, 5 MW-class equipment will be used as the basic unit (floor area: 2.5 m x 6 m, hydrogen production capacity: approx. 100 kg/hr) for development, and will be combined to create a standard package, allowing the construction of large-scale electrolysis systems.

The merits of this equipment include the fact that it only takes up about half the floor area of conventional equipment and offers ease of maintenance while allowing easier shipping, shortened on-site construction times, and lower civil engineering and construction costs. Toyota’s particular expertise in industrial products and Chiyoda’s particular expertise in plant engineering will be combined and optimized, allowing benefits such as lower costs, increased production efficiency, and more stable quality for the electrolysis systems required to produce green hydrogen.

With the signing of this basic agreement on cooperation, the introduction of an electrolysis system in Hydrogen Park at the Toyota Honsha Plant will start in FY2025. It will be expanded in the future to the 10 MW class and used for verification and development. Any further developments will be released as they happen.

Comments

Roger Brown

"The production and mass production technologies for electrolysis cell stacks using the fuel cell technology held by Toyota and the processing plant design technologies and large-scale plant construction technologies held by Chiyoda will be brought together to develop a large-scale electrolysis system that can be competitive."

Presumably the electrolyzers are PEM since they are using Toyota fuel cell technology. The article does not mention anything about cost relative to Alkaline electrolysis which as far as I know is still lower than PEM.

This review article (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844023052076) about electrolyzer technology claims that:

The opinion of experts on Proton Exchange Membrane and alkaline electrolyser technologies is slightly skewed in favor of alkaline technologies. However, the margin is too small to identify a winner in this technology battle.

Davemart

Yep, it is a PEM:

https://www.hydrogeninsight.com/electrolysers/toyota-to-mass-produce-hydrogen-electrolysers-in-partnership-with-chiyoda/2-1-1593648

Pretty compact:

' The 5MW electrolysers — which each take up 2.5 x 6 metres of floor space, and will be capable of producing 100kg of H2 per hour — will be combined to create “a standard package, allowing the construction of large-scale electrolysis systems”.

Roger Pham

5,000 kWh to make 100 kg of H2 = 50 kWh per kg. This is OK, but not the most efficient. The most efficient system that can utilize low-grade waste heat to vaporize the water can achieve 40-45 kWh of electricity per kg. Since a solar PV panel is only 20-25% efficient, while low-grade solar heat can be collected at 80-90% efficiency at much lower cost of equipment, the addition of low-grade solar heat to electrolysis at such a low cost to achieve higher yield for electrolysis can lower the cost of green H2 even more.

The comments to this entry are closed.