I didn't see any thread about this yet, but I just saw Toyota claims that they are going to kill off EVs with their new ammonia engine.
Toyota Takes Aim at EVs With Ammonia Engine
Seems like they are trying to do anything but electrify their fleet. The most common process used today to make ammonia is the Haber-Bosch process which costs about $3.50/gal to produce.
Ammonia production costs? - Thunder Said Energy
The process also produces a fair bit of CO2. There are some other processes that are in the lab that could potentially produce ammonia cheaper and without the CO2 production, but those processes are not available today. The Haber-Bosch process will be with us for a while.
Ammonia is also not very energy dense compared to gasoline. Gasoline has about 33 KWh/Gal of energy, but ammonia only has about 9 KWh/gal. If an ICE that burns ammonia has the same efficiency as a gasoline ICE the car is going to have 1/4 the fuel efficiency of a gas ICE today everything else being equal (same size, weight, etc.) So ammonia ICE will have to have 4X the gas tank size to get the same range.
This seems in some ways loonier than hydrogen fuel cell cars. At least those cars are taking advantage of a technology that is already working. The new ammonia ICE is in the prototype stage and has had to overcome a lot of obstacles because ammonia burns differently than gasoline.
Just like the processes to make ammonia in other ways is years from seeing the market, so is this engine. Meanwhile BEVs will be steadily increasing in market share during the years Toyota is burning on this tech.
There have been some ideas for using ammonia made with solar energy in places that will have an over abundance like Australia to fuel ocean going ships. We will need something other than batteries for that. BEV ships are going to be limited to short run ships like ferries. They are not well suited for ocean going vessels. But for ground transportation we have a perfectly viable propulsion type with BEVs. BEVs are not universally suited to all ground transport needs, some kind of ICE might still be used in places like the Australian Outback and some remote areas in North America (we never got rid of horses for all transport needs, but we did replace most of them with ICE), but BEVs will eventually be used for almost all ground transport applications (once we have enough battery production).
I'm not sure Toyota is going to survive the transition to BEVs. They seem to be overly focused on coming up with some cunning plan to keep the existing infrastructure with a new fuel source flowing in it instead of accepting the reality that BEVs are the future.
"Toyota" by danielctw is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Admin note: Imaged added for Blog Feed thumbnail
Toyota Takes Aim at EVs With Ammonia Engine
Seems like they are trying to do anything but electrify their fleet. The most common process used today to make ammonia is the Haber-Bosch process which costs about $3.50/gal to produce.
Ammonia production costs? - Thunder Said Energy
The process also produces a fair bit of CO2. There are some other processes that are in the lab that could potentially produce ammonia cheaper and without the CO2 production, but those processes are not available today. The Haber-Bosch process will be with us for a while.
Ammonia is also not very energy dense compared to gasoline. Gasoline has about 33 KWh/Gal of energy, but ammonia only has about 9 KWh/gal. If an ICE that burns ammonia has the same efficiency as a gasoline ICE the car is going to have 1/4 the fuel efficiency of a gas ICE today everything else being equal (same size, weight, etc.) So ammonia ICE will have to have 4X the gas tank size to get the same range.
This seems in some ways loonier than hydrogen fuel cell cars. At least those cars are taking advantage of a technology that is already working. The new ammonia ICE is in the prototype stage and has had to overcome a lot of obstacles because ammonia burns differently than gasoline.
Just like the processes to make ammonia in other ways is years from seeing the market, so is this engine. Meanwhile BEVs will be steadily increasing in market share during the years Toyota is burning on this tech.
There have been some ideas for using ammonia made with solar energy in places that will have an over abundance like Australia to fuel ocean going ships. We will need something other than batteries for that. BEV ships are going to be limited to short run ships like ferries. They are not well suited for ocean going vessels. But for ground transportation we have a perfectly viable propulsion type with BEVs. BEVs are not universally suited to all ground transport needs, some kind of ICE might still be used in places like the Australian Outback and some remote areas in North America (we never got rid of horses for all transport needs, but we did replace most of them with ICE), but BEVs will eventually be used for almost all ground transport applications (once we have enough battery production).
I'm not sure Toyota is going to survive the transition to BEVs. They seem to be overly focused on coming up with some cunning plan to keep the existing infrastructure with a new fuel source flowing in it instead of accepting the reality that BEVs are the future.
"Toyota" by danielctw is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Admin note: Imaged added for Blog Feed thumbnail
