W. L. Gore & Associates, Newark, is supplying a key component for the Toyota Mirai fuel cell vehicle.
Under the body of the Mirai is a fuel cell stack, which propels the car The stack contains 370 cells, and each cell contains a Gore membrane.
The ePTFE-based membrane facilitates the chemical reaction between the hydrogen fuel and oxygen, creating as much as 114 kilowatts of electricity.
“This is just another step in our long commitment to product innovation within the automotive industry,” says Laura Keough, Gore Fuel Cell Technologies Global Business Leader. “Developing a deep technical understanding of fuel cell stacks and systems has allowed us to be the first membrane supplier of this kind globally.”
The car was launched in Japan in December 2014, and was made available for sale or lease in the United States starting in October 2015.
Wen Liu Gore’s leader of global technology development in fuel cells, emphasized that this year marks a major milestone within the fuel cell industry: “Gore has been investing in PEM fuel cell technology for decades and we are honored to have been selected for the Toyota Mirai vehicle,” Liu stated.
Toyota has become more aggressive about developing fuel cell technology after seeing its Prius become the market leader in hybrid automobiles that use a rack of batteries and a gasoline engine.
