Toyoda Gosei Receives Toyota’s Technology & Development Award for Development of High Pressure Hydrogen Tanks

Contribution to extension of FCVs’ cruising range

KIYOSU, Japan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd. (TOKYO: 7282) received the Technology & Development Award from Toyota Motor Corporation for the development of high pressure hydrogen tanks used on the new MIRAI, launched by Toyota in December 2020.

High pressure hydrogen tanks are a crucial component for fuel cell vehicles (FCVs), which efficiently hold hydrogen compressed at high pressure (about 700 atm). The new MIRAI is equipped with three hydrogen tanks, one more than the previous model, to extend its cruising range. This is an issue that is important for the widespread adoption of FCVs. Toyoda Gosei produces the third high pressure hydrogen tank*, which is located in the rear of the new MIRAI, while Toyota continues to produce the other two.

Toyoda Gosei developed the new tank together with Toyota Motor Corporation. For the new tanks, improvements have been made in the materials used in the carbon fiber reinforced plastic layer, one of the three layers of the tank wall (layer to withstand high pressure), production methods and other factors. As a result, the hydrogen storage efficiency of the tank, which is the ratio of the mass of stored hydrogen to the mass of the tank, was increased about 10 percent by minimizing the wall thickness to increase the inner volume while maintaining the pressure resistance strength.

Toyoda Gosei will continue to develop products leveraging its core technologies of rubber and plastic with the aim of supporting the spread of electrified vehicles such as electric vehicles (EVs) and FCVs.

^* The production started from November 2020 at the Inabe Plant (Inabe, Mie prefecture, Japan) which was established as a dedicated plant for high pressure hydrogen tanks.