1. Attachments are working again! Check out this thread for more details and to report any other bugs.

Mirai production begins @ 3/day

Discussion in 'Prius, Hybrid, EV and Alt-Fuel News' started by fotomoto, Feb 25, 2015.

  1. dbcassidy

    dbcassidy Toyota Hybrid Nation, 8 Million Strong

    Joined:
    May 13, 2008
    1,581
    290
    3
    Location:
    Middlesex County, MA
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius
    Model:
    Two
    Its' even worst for gasoline vapors and smokers in a parking garage - they all don't mix!

    DBCassidy
     
  2. cycledrum

    cycledrum PSOCSOASP

    Joined:
    Apr 9, 2008
    8,245
    1,202
    0
    Location:
    NorCal
    Vehicle:
    Other Non-Hybrid
    Model:
    N/A
    I'm runnin' on bullsh*t ... oh oh (you know the song*) ;)



    Just recalled, song was 'walking on sunshine'. Close enough.
     
    #222 cycledrum, Apr 23, 2015
    Last edited: Apr 23, 2015
    usbseawolf2000 likes this.
  3. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

    Joined:
    Feb 7, 2006
    21,590
    11,212
    0
    Location:
    eastern Pennsylvania
    Vehicle:
    Other Non-Hybrid
    I just keep thinking of the farmers already using the poop for site electric and heat. Hope they get reimbursed enough for the poop to cover those expenses.
     
  4. fotomoto

    fotomoto Senior Member

    Joined:
    Apr 22, 2009
    5,596
    3,770
    0
    Location:
    So. Texas
    Vehicle:
    Other Hybrid
    Back in my youth in the '70's, I occasionally worked on a large chicken farm (factory). Even back then, they recycle the chicken shi..... umm, poop, into local farm fields. They used small dump trucks with spinning prong type blades at the rear of the bed that spun as the truck drove through the field flinging out the matter.

    Some eggs were laid without a shell (very weird looking and feeling) and only a thin, delicate membrane holding it together. These were tossed into 5 gallon buckets and placed in cold storage to be sold to pet food manufacturers. Nothing went to waste.
     
  5. mrbigh

    mrbigh Prius Absolutum Dominium

    Joined:
    Sep 6, 2005
    3,686
    699
    2
    Location:
    Long Island, NY
    Vehicle:
    Other Electric Vehicle
    Can we call the Mirai " the poop miracle mobile" ?
     
    #225 mrbigh, Apr 24, 2015
    Last edited: Apr 24, 2015
  6. usbseawolf2000

    usbseawolf2000 HSD PhD

    Joined:
    Sep 22, 2004
    14,487
    2,994
    0
    Location:
    Fort Lee, NJ
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    I think one of the Mirai engineer said it is the car from Back To The Future with Mr.Fusion because it could run on garbage.
     
  7. Zythryn

    Zythryn Senior Member

    Joined:
    Apr 28, 2008
    6,153
    4,144
    1
    Location:
    Minnesota
    Vehicle:
    Other Electric Vehicle
    Model:
    N/A
    But can it reach 88mph? :ROFLMAO:
     
  8. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

    Joined:
    Feb 7, 2006
    21,590
    11,212
    0
    Location:
    eastern Pennsylvania
    Vehicle:
    Other Non-Hybrid
    Corn stover is being looked at for a feedstock to alternate fuels. It's the stalks and stuff left on the fields after harvesting. Part of the research is looking at how much we can remove from the field. All of it isn't sustainable. Some of the material needs to be mulched back into the soil to provide nutrinents for next seasons crop. Doing so might also lead to more CO2 release from the soil with the change its ecosystem removing all will cause.
    Maybe those huge intakes are for the flight engine.
     
    Zythryn likes this.
  9. usbseawolf2000

    usbseawolf2000 HSD PhD

    Joined:
    Sep 22, 2004
    14,487
    2,994
    0
    Location:
    Fort Lee, NJ
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    Yup, it has top speed of 111 mph. It'll take about 10-11 seconds to reach 88 mph to warp. :)
     
  10. Zythryn

    Zythryn Senior Member

    Joined:
    Apr 28, 2008
    6,153
    4,144
    1
    Location:
    Minnesota
    Vehicle:
    Other Electric Vehicle
    Model:
    N/A
    Good to know(y)
    Although the 0-60 is 9 seconds. I would think 88mph would be closer to 14 seconds?
     
  11. telmo744

    telmo744 HSD fanatic

    Joined:
    Apr 8, 2010
    2,168
    764
    0
    Location:
    Portugal
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    The driver itself can pull some thrust, only a matter of "back pressure".
     
  12. El Dobro

    El Dobro A Member

    Joined:
    Jul 12, 2011
    6,972
    3,209
    1
    Location:
    NJ
    Vehicle:
    Other Electric Vehicle
    Model:
    N/A
  13. usbseawolf2000

    usbseawolf2000 HSD PhD

    Joined:
    Sep 22, 2004
    14,487
    2,994
    0
    Location:
    Fort Lee, NJ
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
  14. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

    Joined:
    Feb 7, 2006
    21,590
    11,212
    0
    Location:
    eastern Pennsylvania
    Vehicle:
    Other Non-Hybrid
    Which will show that while a plugin may emit more carbon dioxide, which isn't the sole reason to switch, than a Prius, they still emit less than the typical new vehicle sold.
     
    Zythryn likes this.
  15. austingreen

    austingreen Senior Member

    Joined:
    Nov 3, 2009
    13,525
    4,057
    0
    Location:
    Austin, TX, USA
    Vehicle:
    2018 Tesla Model 3
    Model:
    N/A
    While I agree it's greenwashing, not for most of those author's excuses.

    http://www.themilkweed.com/Methane%20Digesters%20-%20Green%20or%20Dirty%20Brown.pdf
    There is plenty of manure out there, and its bad for the environment. It pollutes air and water and smells awful to me, but good to some farmers. The chief components of the bad smell is hydrogen sulfide H2S and ammonia NH3. The chief ghg are methane and carbon dioxide. You can clean up the pollution a lot by collecting it, converting the H2S to sulfuric acid H2SO4 and the amonia to fertilizer. The methane can be used as cng in the trucks collecting the manure, can be burned in a gas turbine to provide electricity (with methane storage this can be a peaking unit), or converted to Hydrogen to run in cars.

    And that is where this gets to be a bull story.
    This is a lot more expensive than natural gas, and even natural gas distributed hydrogen is expensive today. Now the biogas project was subsidized, but not enough to break even. Part of the problem is the milk, meat, and eggs we eat don't include the cost of pollution that they provide to the environment. IMHO some of this cost should be charged to the farmers and ranchers, which today are often corporations and not family farms, That would show up in the price of milk, meat, and eggs, but more would be cleaned up. Some probably should be borne by the tax payer. Let's say you solve the cost problem and charge the farmers or the tax payers to make the biogas cost the same as natural gas, or natural gas electricity.

    Then there is a pesky problem of distribution and quantity. Most of these dairy cows and beef cattle live in rural areas, but hybrids and plug-ins mainly sell in urban areas. The fuel cell cars are expected to cluster in urban areas, and there is where initial fueling stations are concentrated. That means we either have to move the manure to the fueling stations, which is the most expensive, liquify and truck the hydrogen, also expensive, or perhaps truck the natural gas to stations with natural gas reformers, which would be the cheapest. But by far the most cost effective is to burn the biogas where it is manufactured, have this displace natural gas on the grid, and use this "saved" natural gas to manufacture the hydrogen. That way you don't need to spend the energy trucking it around. Of course this is not an advantage over a plug-in that can use that grid electricity.

    There also aren't enough cattle to provide a meaningful percentage of our fleet with energy, but fuel cell vehicles aren't likely to be using much energy anytime soon. I don't think the problem with fuel cells are that they don't use enough renewables, the problem is the costs are too high today. Get the breakthroughs, lower the costs, and it may be game on. Pretending that they are greener than plug-ins because they can use bullshit to run is simply greenwashing for now.
     
    TomSwift likes this.
  16. El Dobro

    El Dobro A Member

    Joined:
    Jul 12, 2011
    6,972
    3,209
    1
    Location:
    NJ
    Vehicle:
    Other Electric Vehicle
    Model:
    N/A
  17. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

    Joined:
    May 11, 2005
    107,571
    48,861
    0
    Location:
    boston
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    agree with sparks, let's do everything we can to turn our farms into country clubs and housing tracts. there's plenty o cheap food in south america.
     
  18. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

    Joined:
    Jun 23, 2005
    19,600
    8,034
    54
    Location:
    Montana & Nashville, TN
    Vehicle:
    2004 Prius
    Model:
    IV
    then there's the problem of our ever shrinking water table - not just here in CA, but the underground water across the corn belt;

    [​IMG]

    To grow tons & tons of crops - just so we can dump it in a feed lot, is questionable at best. Don't get me wrong - I'll polish off a rib eye as fast as the next person - but feed lot pollution;

    Waste Lagoon At Cattle Feedlot Captured On Satellite Photo

    AND water resource depletion is a serious issue on many levels. So for Toyota to pretend they can generate enough feedlot crap to cheaply make hydrogen for their overpriced fc experiment is just one more spin on top of the the other spins. It smacks of desperation in advertising.
    .
     
    #238 hill, Apr 29, 2015
    Last edited: Apr 29, 2015
  19. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

    Joined:
    May 11, 2005
    107,571
    48,861
    0
    Location:
    boston
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    article in AAA newsletter today, highlites: media preview for new england international auto show.

    charlie myers, president of the massachusetts hydrogen coalition, "it's an emission free technology, a responsive driving experience, tanking up isn't much different from gasoline.

    christy pourmousa, toyota vehicle product training specialist, standing next to a mirai, "it's going to be here a lot sooner than people anticipated.

    myers: "hydrogen prices are much more stable than gasoline, and the environmental benefits are a big factor leading to this technology. and unlike electric vehicles, fuel cells don't have a driving range much different from the typical car."

    in november, air liquid of france signed a deal with toyota to bring a 12 station fueling infrastructure to the northeast, though details have not been announced.
     
  20. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

    Joined:
    Jun 23, 2005
    19,600
    8,034
    54
    Location:
    Montana & Nashville, TN
    Vehicle:
    2004 Prius
    Model:
    IV
    [​IMG]
     
    bisco likes this.