Toyota Experimenting With Natural Gas Fuel Cells

Toyota is experimenting with using natural gas rather than hydrogen in a fuel cell vehicle.

The prototype hybrid system actually uses both fuel cells and a micro gas turbine to generate power. The turbine provides oxygen to the fuel cell in the form of compressed air. The oxygen reacts with the hydrogen and carbon monoxide to create electricity. Waste heat from the system is used to create additional power, and Toyota says the turbine is powered by leftovers from the process that splits natural gas into hydrogen and carbon monoxide.

Toyota claims the system is capable of generating 250 kilowatts of power, with 53 percent efficiency using only the fuel cell. Factoring in the use of waste heat to create power increases the system's overall efficiency to 65 percent, Toyota says, making it more efficient than a regular fuel cell. The fuel cell features a novel solid-oxide design that doesn't require a platinum catalyst, according to Toyota, and it operates at lower temperatures than conventional fuel cells.