The Unfortunate Truth About Toyota's Hydrogen V8 Engine

Can Toyota's Hydrogen V8 Save Combustion Engines?

Toyota partnered with Yamaha to develop a hydrogen powered V8 engine, derived from the 5.0L V8 used on the Lexus RC F. The engine produces 450 horsepower by burning hydrogen, and thus has no direct carbon emissions. Unfortunately, there's a big problem with hydrogen combustion vehicles, as this video will demonstrate.

From the Yamaha Press Release:
"In November last year, the five companies of Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Subaru Corporation, Toyota Motor Corporation, Mazda Motor Corporation, and Yamaha Motor jointly announced they would begin discussions for conducting collaborative research into possible avenues for expanding the range of fuel options for internal combustion engines in the quest for carbon neutrality. And at the announcement venue, the V8 hydrogen engine shown above, which was developed by Yamaha for Toyota, was unveiled to the public. The unit is based on the 5.0-liter engine in the Lexus RC F luxury sport coupe, with modifications made to the injectors, cylinder heads, intake manifold, and more, and delivers up to 450 hp at 6,800 rpm and a maximum 540 Nm of torque of at 3,600 rpm."

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[RYNZ]

I love how Jason gave me hope at the beginning of the video, then ripped my heart out and kept destroying it meticulously into little pieces as the video went along. Very informative though! 😂

[Shifticek]

i have a solution which is both perfect for safety and storage space: instead of storing the hydrogen inside the body of the vehicle, you pump it into a giant baloon which you then attach to the car by hose, that way as you drive around the baloon just floats above your car and in case of car crash it just detaches and flies away

perfect

[tellytruth]

We've come full circle. I'm ordering my new Hindenburg blimp. Why get stuck in traffic when you can soar above! Gotta love it!

[lakiza]

The fact that they developed it even though it doesn't make much sense, gives me hope. Putting the work, effort and money into an idea that doesn't guarantee profit is something we don't see often these days.

[mikethatguy]

I love that Yamaha is always creating new engines. 🙌💯

[ronkluwe]

One of the biggest fallacies of the "zero emissions" claim of a hydrogen powered internal combustion engine is that it totally ignores the fact that NOx will still be produced. NOx is a major component of smog and precursor of acid rain. Only claiming zero emissions for carbon is disingenuous. You need to look at the entire story.

[tomboytomgirl]

You are very very good at the job of fully explaining this issue with NO CONFUSION! Kudos! to you, sir. Thank you so much. Please keep up the great work. It is very appreciated.

[alecstetzer]

Nevermind the initial energy needed to creat the hydrogen at scale.

[KEEPINITRIL]

An old boss had a track record at Riverside (now defunct) in an alt-fuel class. He ran a Fiat on hydrogen with water 'injection'. He said hydrogen doesn't knock, so he ran a 16:1 compression.

[traveling.down.the.road]

I don’t doubt your point about Hydrogen being impractical as a fuel for a V8 sports car, but I noticed that when you talked about liquid Hydrogen and the 75% reduced space requirement, you went from 21 five gallon buckets, to 12 five gallon buckets. 12 is not 25% of 21??? If I heard you wrong and you meant a 25% reduction of space, then the math still doesn’t equal 12 buckets, from 21 originally used.

[charliepsaila]

Always great watching your videos giving pros and cons on new development, thanks.

[berttroubleyn]

I actually rode in one of those hydrogen 7 Series at the Frankfur motor show.
Because the hydrogen eats up oil, the engine more or less ran unlunbricated. therefore it made a horrible rattling sound and had to be rebuilt constantly.
Not to mention the fact that all the weight from the colossal hydrogen tanks made it the slowest V12 car on the planet...

[EngineeringExplained]

The video demonstrates the problem that's likely the most difficult to solve relating to hydrogen combustion vehicles, though there are other technical challenges. The fueling infrastructure doesn't exist, but it could. Most of today's hydrogen comes from natural gas reformation (hence, carbon emissions), but it can be made cleanly with electrolysis, if the energy source is clean. Making clean hydrogen energy requires tons of energy, but if you're able to generate abundant clean energy, it's slightly less of an issue (efficiency will always matter). Combustion inefficiency makes hydrogen driving quite costly considering it's the equivalent of paying $15/gal. Hydrogen combustion also has NOx emissions, despite no CO2 (okay, a little CO2 from engine oil). NOx is difficult to avoid with combustion engines. Realistically, today's hydrogen engines are less efficient than gasoline/diesel (meaning the bucket situation is very likely worse than shown in the video), but they haven't been perfected as much as gas/diesel. Still, fuel cells & EVs will always be more efficient. And you still need to make sure the 10, 000 psi pressure vessel has a safe location in the vehicle. There are many challenges, but it's an interesting subject. Below are related videos, if you're interested in learning more!

[myownspiritlevel]

Yamaha makes probably the best outboard motor ever. Toyota makes the most dependable ICE. They are the pinnacle of engineering. You should contact them and let them know.

[meanpersonable]

Keep up the good work. I was using the video as entertainment AND information so I did not take notes. I think you provide an essential service.

[reformriverside]

One of the other drawback of high pressure storage it the limited life expectancy of the tanks. They must be inspected at a service interval and then scrapped when they reach specified age.

[chakasim]

Hi Jason, Daimler Trucks is currently developing a semi truck with liquid hydrogen as a fuel and a fuel cell called the GenH2 with an anticipated range of more than 600 mi. A prototype is already running on public roads. I'm working for the company that developed the tank. If you need an even closer insight into the technology and why it can make sense for semi trucks hit me up.

[lalman]

insane info and presentation thank you, very very intresting

[brettschweinberg]

I would point out that the three tiny fuel cells in the Mirai is a relatively inefficient means of storage in terms of space, and is not a great benchmark for a method of storing hydrogen. It's bad data to extrapolate from. A larger vessel would be more efficient in terms of space because the three cells have redundant walls. I also find using the 21 buckets in the hatchback comparison a little problematic because you're not using counting for the existing fuel tank in the car. You can cut at least 3 gallons out of the equation, assuming there's a 15 gallon tank underneath.
And, as other have pointed out, we can do a whole hell of a lot better than 19MPG on hydrogen, so while it may not be feasible to get 300 miles of range with sports car performance, you can certainly get a car with 300 mile range on hydrogen. That's not to say there aren't salient points and valid concerns, but I"m not throwing hydrogen by the wayside just yet. Trucking, for example, is going to be incredibly difficult to do with EVs because the batteries have to be so large that their weight becomes counterproductive. There's a much stronger chance they go hydrogen, which means the infrastructure should go up while costs go down.

[jeffandsherriefranzwa]

I would be interested to see the storage needs for a 4 cylinder turbo engine. Presumably, on a vehicle which a 4 cylinder would adequately power, there would be less fuel needed for the same driving range. We shouldn't despair that there's not a perfect hydrogen option yet. We're making progress.