The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
Sees tech suited for heavy long hauls; fuel stations needed Metal Tech News – June 22, 2022
Both hydrogen fuel cell and battery electric technologies are being developed as zero-carbon options for Volvo Trucks.
A Volvo fuel cell truck pulls up to a hydrogen pump. A lack of green hydrogen production and fueling stations are currently impediments to commercial deployment of fuel cell trucks.
Electric-powered 18-wheelers that never need to charge and emit water vapor as exhaust – this is Volvo Trucks' vision for the future of heavy long-haul transport. Hydrogen fuel cells are the technology behind this eco-friendly dream, and the Swedish automaker's truck manufacturing division is already testing hydrogen-powered semis.
In the most basic terms, a fuel cell transforms hydrogen and atmospheric oxygen into electricity, water vapor, and a little heat. Platinum catalysts split hydrogen fed into one side of the fuel cell into protons and electrons and oxygen supplied through air introduced to the other side is split into ions. The hydrogen-created electrons generate electricity and the protons pass through a membrane separating the two sides and connect with the oxygen ions to produce the water exhaust.
Volvo Trucks sees this zero-carbon-emissions technology as being particularly well-suited for transporting heavy loads over long distances.
"Hydrogen-powered fuel cell electric trucks will be especially suitable for long distances and heavy, energy-demanding assignments," said Volvo Trucks President Roger Alm.
Early last year, Volvo Truck and Daimler Truck – which makes Freightliner, Western Star, and four other brands of heavy trucks – joined forces to commercialize fuel-cell systems for long-haul trucking and other applications. The fuel cells developed by this joint venture, known as cellcentric, are now being tested in Volvo trucks.
"We have been developing this technology for some years now, and it feels great to see the first trucks successfully running on the test track," Alm added.
Volvo says trucks with two 150-kilowatt cellcentric fuel cells are able to travel up to 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) on a tank of hydrogen and take less than 15 minutes to refuel. This is expected to provide for longer travel and shorter recharge times when compared with battery-electric semis.
While Volvo Trucks is excited about the future of fuel cell heavy transport, the company sees battery-electric trucks playing an important role, especially for shorter hauls and lighter loads, and is advancing both technologies.
"The combination of battery electric and fuel cell electric will enable our customers to completely eliminate CO2 exhaust emissions from their trucks, no matter transport assignments," Alms said.
For now, Volvo Trucks' fuel cell technology is outpacing the availability of hydrogen and infrastructure needed to put these water vapor emitting 18-wheelers on global highways.
The primary roadblock to commercial use of hydrogen long-haul trucks is refueling stations are few and far between.
In the United States, for instance, there are 107 hydrogen fuel stations – 106 in California and one in Hawaii. Additional stations are under development in northeastern U.S. and in the Pacific Northwest.
There were 228 hydrogen stations in Europe going into 2022. Germany, with 101, has the largest concentration of the stations, followed by France, United Kingdom, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.
While fuel cell only produces water vapor as exhaust, hydrogen rarely exists in its elemental gaseous form on Earth, and the process of isolating pure hydrogen can have its own carbon footprint that offsets the environmental benefits of the fuel.
The two cleanest forms of hydrogen are green, which is produced by using zero-carbon energy sources to split the hydrogen atoms of water molecules through a process called electrolysis, and blue, which is produced by using a steam process to extract the element from natural gas or other fossil fuels and capturing any carbon byproducts that are produced.
"We expect the supply of green hydrogen to increase significantly during the next couple of years, since many industries will depend on it to reduce CO2. However, we cannot wait to decarbonize transport, we are already running late," said Alm. "So, my clear message to all transport companies is to start the journey today with battery electric, biogas and the other options available. The fuel cell trucks will then be an important complement for longer and heavier transports in a few years from now."
This aligns with Volvo Trucks' plans to begin customer pilots of fuel cell trucks in the coming years and add hydrogen-powered trucks to be ready to commercially produce these hydrogen-fueled electric semis by the end of the decade.
With more than 16 years of covering mining, Shane is renowned for his insights and and in-depth analysis of mining, mineral exploration and technology metals.
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