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Carbon Neutral Initiatives

Toward a Sustainable Society

To achieve a carbon-neutral society, we are researching ways to make factories more energy efficient, reduce CO2 emissions, and promote the use of renewable energy sources.

Climate change mitigation and achievement of carbon neutrality by 2050

Since the beginning of the 21st century, many large-scale weather disasters, such as torrential rains, heat waves, and cold waves, have been occurring in many parts of the world, significantly affecting our daily lives. The increase and accumulation of greenhouse gas (such as CO2) emissions from people’s activities cause global warming and climate change, which in turn cause the abovementioned phenomena.
Consequently, the international community is calling for achieving carbon neutrality, which means virtually eliminating CO2 emissions by 2050. This is a global-level challenge to realize a sustainable society and requires various initiatives, ranging from national systems and industrial technologies to individual behavioral changes. Therefore, addressing climate change as a matter of corporate social responsibility and from the perspective of corporate management is becoming increasingly important for industries.

Illustration of artificial photosynthetic system
Deviation in Average Global Ground Level Temperature (on land and at sea) (source: Japanese Ministry of the Environment)
Illustration of artificial photosynthetic system
Distribution of global CO2 concentrations monitored by the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT) (source: Japanese Ministry of the Environment)

Our approach

Since around 2016, as the central research institute of the Toyota Group, we have been intensifying our research and development efforts to achieve carbon neutrality. Our research efforts focus on energy conservation, which significantly reduces energy consumption, and the efficient use of renewable energy, as they are required for carbon neutrality.

2015 artificial photosynthetic cell (1 × 1 cm)
Our Initiatives to Realize Carbon Neutrality

Power grid

The electricity delivered from power lines to homes and other facilities is alternating current (AC), but many devices, such as smartphones and personal computers, convert electricity into direct current (DC) for use. The electricity produced via photovoltaic power generation, which is a representative renewable energy source, is DC, and technologies that can handle both AC and DC will become important as the use of renewable energy sources becomes more widespread.
We are developing technologies for the efficient use of both AC and DC power, including a compact, highly efficient AC/DC converter called the Smart Power Hub® and the sweep function called the SWEEP SYSTEM® (Figure 1). The latter bundles used batteries in different states of deterioration to use up electricity. We are also developing technologies for the efficient use of both AC and DC power. Furthermore, we are exploring power grids that will improve the use of renewable energy, such as by using DC directly to charge electric vehicles or to feed power from electric vehicles.

SWEEP SYSTEM®
Fig. 1: SWEEP SYSTEM®

Hydrogen grid

Power storage is necessary to use power effectively because solar and wind power generation fluctuates greatly according to weather and time. However, long-term, large-scale power storage is expensive, and a technology is needed to convert such energy into energy carriers that can be stored stably at a low cost.
Hydrogen is a typical energy carrier. We are working on a water electrolysis technology that converts electricity into hydrogen and an ammonia synthesis technology that converts hydrogen into ammonia, which is highly storable and portable (Figure 2). We are also developing a system for hydrogen storage and heat utilization to extract hydrogen in response to demand fluctuations. In this way, we are promoting the research and development of a hydrogen grid that can produce, store, and supply hydrogen in a distributed manner.

Ammonia Synthesis System
Fig. 2: Ammonia Synthesis System

Demand-side adjustment

The demand side, where large amounts of energy are consumed (such as in factories), needs to conserve energy and implement CO2 emission reduction technologies for CO2 recovery and recycling. Most of the energy discarded from factories is discharged as heat, whose effective utilization is important for energy conservation in such facilities.
We are working at the demonstration level on heat management technologies, such as waste heat–powered air conditioning, which entails the use of adsorption heat pumps that utilize low-temperature waste heat. In addition, hydrogen conversion into methane enables the use of existing city gas facilities, thus enhancing the ease of using energy derived from renewable energy sources. Based on this idea, we are accelerating our efforts to implement C-LOOP®, a CO2 recovery system with methanation (Figure 3) that circulates carbon and does not emit CO2 from the factory facilities. The use of these technologies to enable factories to adjust their energy demand flexibly will be important for efficient energy use. Furthermore, we will promote research on facility design and production planning to make factories intelligent using machine learning and artificial intelligence. The goal is to minimize their energy loss and make them carbon neutral.
For carbon-neutral mobility, we are helping develop combustion technologies for carbon-free fuels, such as ammonia and carbon-circulating fuels (such as e-fuel). We are also working on other carbon-negative technologies, such as direct air capture and artificial photosynthesis.

Methanation Circulation System
Fig. 3: CO2 Methanation Circulation System

Grid-integrated energy management systems (EMSs)

The energy demand of a factory operating on renewable energy should be balanced with the supply of renewable energy.
We are studying an energy system design technology that mathematically designs optimal energy systems by combining the power grid, hydrogen grid, and demand-side technologies described above. This technology enables the design of cost-minimizing facility configurations among various combinations. We are also working on a grid-integrated EMS technology that optimally controls these designed systems. Here, we use digital twins to reproduce actual factory environments in a virtual environment and are working on system construction.
This grid-integrated EMS technology has a hierarchical basic structure. An upper-tier EMS commands only the energy distribution to each grid based on supply and demand forecasts. The lower-tier EMS is implemented in each device and autonomously determines its own operational protocols within the constraints of the command values of the upper-tier EMS. We have constructed a small-scale experimental hydrogen grid, an electric power grid, and a demand-side grid in-house and are conducting an energy management demonstration (Figure 4).
In the future, we believe that the grid-integrated EMS technology will allow multiple factories and communities to form a large energy network, where each grid will have the ability to function as a regulator of renewable energy.

Energy Management
Fig. 4: Energy Management
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