Toyota and PowerHouse Energy have entered talks to exploit the latter’s distributed modular gasification (DMG) technology in Japan and potentially worldwide.
The DMG process uses waste plastic, end-of-life-tyres and other waste streams for conversion into EcoSynthesis gas, from which products such as chemical precursors, hydrogen and electricity may be derived.
PowerHouse said DMG can generate more than one tonne of road-fuel quality hydrogen and more than 28MW per hour of exportable electricity each day. It produces low levels of safe residues and requires a small operating footprint, making it suitable for deployment at enterprise and community level.
The company said DMG allows viable local production of hydrogen without the distribution penalties associated with centralised production.
Chief executive Keith Allaun said: “Toyota is taking a leading role globally in the use of hydrogen in transport and appears to recognise the potential that our distributed DMG technology process has to deliver, with its road-quality hydrogen at a commercially competitive price as and when it’s needed.”
Allaun said Asia in general, and Japan in particular, were extremely attractive markets, with indicative gate fees for unrecyclable plastics at around £200 per tonne and private wire electrical prices about £100 per MW/h.PowerHouse set up a demonstration facility at the University of Chester (pictured), which supplies electricity to the Thornton Science Park microgrid.
Fuente: mrw