Toyota has opened Victoria's first commercial hydrogen production, storage and refuelling facility at its former manufacturing site at Altona in Melbourne's west.
Toyota Australia president and CEO Matthew Callachor said the Toyota Hydrogen Centre was built to showcase the benefits of hydrogen fuel cell technology as part of the company's commitment to developing sustainable technologies for future energy needs.
"Globally, Toyota is committed to achieving zero carbon emissions from its vehicles and plants under the Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050 and the commissioning of our hydrogen refuelling facility here today is an important step towards achieving that goal," Mr Callachor said.
"By demonstrating the viability of renewably-produced hydrogen as an automotive and energy fuel through this project, Toyota and its partners in government and business are pioneering a cleaner, more sustainable future that will encourage the further acceptance of this technology.
"We would like to thank our government partners for their assistance in bringing this project to fruition and those progressive business partners who will lease the 20 Mirai sedans we have brought into Australia to prove that hydrogen and fuel cell vehicles can, and will, play an important role in helping to move us towards a more sustainable and greener future," Mr Callachor said.
Toyota now sells most of Australia's most popular vehicle models in Australia including HiLux utes and Rav 4 wagons.
CSIRO Hydrogen Industry Mission representative Dr Patrick Hartley, who attended the opening, said the new infrastructure commissioned by Toyota would progress the deployment of hydrogen vehicles and serve as a beacon to other companies looking to invest in hydrogen transport technology.
Mr Callachor said sustainably produced hydrogen was the core element to fuel vehicles like the Toyota Mirai FCEV, a fuel cell electric vehicle that produces no carbon dioxide emissions, requires no battery recharging and has a range of 650km.
He said the Toyota Mirai has been sold in markets in Japan and US for the past seven years but the greatest challenge to the broad-scale introduction of fuel cell electric vehicles in Australia has been a lack of refuelling infrastructure.
The Toyota Hydrogen Centre also has an education centre to provide information on how hydrogen fuel cells work and the potential benefits to society.
Hydrogen is produced on site by a 200kW electrolyser that uses electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen and has the capacity to produce up to 80kg of hydrogen per day.
Power for the electrolyser is drawn from a combination of an 87kW solar array, a 100kW battery storage and mains grid depending on what's available at the time.
The hydrogen is then stored in a bank of storage tubes at medium and high pressure to be able to refuel both the fuel-cell forklifts that Toyota uses in other parts of the Altona complex and hydrogen FCEVs like the new Mirai FCEV.