An island in Japan has revolutionized its vehicles. They have turned cow droppings into hydrogen fuel

If we talk about hydrogen and mobility, we would possibly have to Add to Japan In the equation. Few companies have tried to make it a real alternative to the electric car like the Japanese Toyota, although it is true that in recent times the idea was Much more than in doubt. An island has shown that technology is still there. Of course, with the invaluable help of tons of cows excrement.

The solution in Hokkaido. On the island of HokkaidoJapan, a key region for country production of the countryan innovative project seeks to convert the Hydrogen cow manurethat clean fuel with the potential of feed vehicles, homes and agricultural machinery. With More than one million cows Currently generating 20 million tons of manure per year, this source of waste represents an environmental problem due to its methane emissions and its impact on the Water quality.

He Shikaoi Hydrogen Farmlaunched in 2015 by the Ministry of Environment of Japan, addresses this challenge by transforming waste into a sustainable energy resource. As? The manure and urine of cows are Farm collected local and sent to an anaerobic digester, where bacteria break down organic matter to produce biogas and liquid fertilizer. Then, biogas is purified in methane, which later becomes, hydrogen.

Sustainable mobility. The plant has a production capacity of 70 cubic meters of hydrogenenough to supply up to 28 vehicles with hydrogen cells per day. In addition to cars, the fuel is currently used In tractors and forklift of the island, whose electrification with batteries is more complex. It is also stored in Canisters that are transported to provide energy to a sturgence fish and Obihiro Zoo.

Challenges Several, of course. The main one is logistics, since it must be stored in high pressure tanks, which does so susceptible to leaks and degradation of materials, in addition to requiring specialized infrastructure for transport and distribution. Your acryogenic lmacement at -253 ° C is energetically expensive, which hinders its scalability.

In spite of this, the project continues to advance, mainly with subsidies that equate the price of hydrogen with that of gasoline, to promote its adoption in cities such as Sapporo and Muroran. In fact and as we said at the beginning, Japan leads the hydrogen industryalthough the electric cars still They are more profitable than those driven by this gas.

Hydrogen from waste. The truth is that the concept of producing hydrogen from waste is not limited to Japan. Other initiatives in the world explore alternative sources such as Pork manurepoultry and even Coconut peels.

For example, in Thailand Toyota investigates hydrogen production From chicken excrement. In the United States the University of Illinois developed A METHOD TO MANUFACTURE HYDROGEN With manure, sugarcane residues and corn cobs, significantly reducing the energy consumption of the process. And in Fukuoka, Japan, a wastewater treatment plant produces hydrogen From human wastesupplying a fleet of garbage trucks without emission.

All initiatives show that bioenergy from waste can play a key role in the global energy transition. However, the lack of infrastructure and high costs remain barriers for large -scale expansion.

Uncertain future. He Project in Shikaoi It is an innovative example of circular economy, where waste becomes energy, reducing emissions and promoting sustainability. However, the viability of hydrogen as an alternative to fossil fuels will depend on technological advances that reduce their cost of production, storage and distribution.

Although manure and cow droppings will hardly be the main source of hydrogen in the future, especially worldwide, initiatives such as these can lay the foundations for a new energy industry based on waste recycling, with potential applications in transport, agriculture and clean energy generation globally.

Image | Japanexpeter, Nara

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