Toyota Motor Cor
poration (TMC), Hino Motors Ltd. (Hino) and Showa Shell Sekiyu K. K. (SSSKK) announced today they plan to begin trials on July 1 of a diesel-electric hybrid transit bus fueled by a CO2 emissions-reducing mixture of Fischer-Tropsch diesel (FTD) 1 and hydrogenated biodiesel 2.
The trials, which are funded by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) under the National Traffic Safety and Environment Laboratory (NTSEL)’s Next-Generation Environmentally Friendly Vehicles Development and Commercialization Project, aim to verify that a FTD-hydrogenated-biodiesel mixture can be used extendedly with unmodified vehicle components, such as fuel hoses and fuel injectors.
The trials will use a Hino Blue Ribbon City Hybrid, already in service as a Tokyo Metropolitan Government Bureau of Transportation transit bus, on various Tokyo routes until the end of December 2010.
FTD is a family of cleaner-burning synthetic liquid fuels made through Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis that have combustion characteristics ideal for diesel engines and are virtually free from sulfur and aromatics. FTD can significantly contribute to cleaner exhaust, with previous results under the NTSEL project demonstrating 50 percent less particulate matter, 20 percent less HC and 20 percent less CO in exhaust gas emissions compared to conventional diesel. FTD is also expected to provide a cost-effective alternative to diesel, as it can be supplied through the existing fuel infrastructure, and is considered promising from the viewpoint of energy security, because it can be made from various sources, including biomass.
TMC, Hino, and SSSKK—together with NTSEL—have focused on the usability of FTD since October 2005 and have been working to develop vehicles that run exclusively on the fuel and achieve a significant reduction in pollution. The companies have also been conducing road trials, such as the limited-term fleet trial held in December 2007 using FTD-powered carrier vehicles in and around Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture and between TMC’s headquarters in Toyota City and TMC’s Higashi-Fuji Technical Center in Shizuoka Prefecture.
1 The FTD used in this trial is Shell GTL Fuel produced at a plant of Shell MDS (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd in Bintulu, Malaysia.
2 The hydrogenated biodiesel used in this trial is made from vegetable oil and is also called hydrotreated vegetable-oil (HVO) fuel. Hydrogenated biodiesel can be produced from a wide variety of ingredients, such as animal fats, in addition to vegetable oil, and is similar in characteristics to FTD fuel.
