At CES this previous week, the trucking startup Nikola showed off a hydrogen-fueled semi truck, one in every of its first ever constructed within the U.S. However the troubled firm with a convicted founder isn’t the one participant lately seeing a promising future in fuel-cell fueled huge rigs. Daimler Truck has additionally lately introduced their GenH2 electric semi. GenH2’s motors draw energy from a gas cell that runs on liquid hydrogen, and Daimler has mentioned the automobile will seem on German roads by mid-2024.
The corporate has entered agreements with a number of firms which have fleet operations within the German area, the place Daimler successfully tested a GenH2 prototype on a observe and on public roads. Through these early street exams, the corporate says they’ve discovered {that a} absolutely loaded GenH2 proved able to hauling its roughly 25-ton payload greater than 1,000 kilometers on a single fueling.
Below the Hood of the GenH2 Truck
The fuel-cell system of the GenH2 Truck, in accordance with the corporate, delivers 300 kilowatts. The truck additionally has a battery that may kick in an extra 400 kW in brief bursts for fast acceleration and hill climbing. The battery’s 70 kilowatt-hour storage capability could seem small, bu appears it’s ample for recycling kinetic power that’s transformed to electrical cost by way of regenerative braking.
Daimler’s GenH2 Truck, in accordance with the corporate’s preliminary street exams, can journey 1,000 km on a full tank of liquid hydrogen. Daimler Truck
Daimler, together with Linde and Air Liquide, the German and French multinational suppliers of commercial gases and hydrogen refueling providers, are benefiting from advances in liquid hydrogen storage that yield notable benefits over utilizing pressurized gasoline.
In its liquified state, extra hydrogen may be carried per unit quantity in comparison with room-temperature H2, which is a gasoline. Consequently, power density is considerably increased, whereas smaller tanks on the automobile can nonetheless yield better vary than is feasible than gaseous hydrogen. That house financial savings and enhance in power density let the truck haul an even bigger payload.
At specially-equipped liquid hydrogen filling stations in Wörth am Rhein and within the Duisburg space, cryogenic liquid hydrogen cooled to minus 253 levels Celsius may be pumped into two 44-kilogram stainless-steel tanks mounted on both aspect of a GenH2 semi’s chassis. Refueling may be accomplished inside 10 to fifteen minutes. In keeping with the corporate, high-efficiency insulation on the tanks maintain the hydrogen under its ultra-low boiling level with out energetic cooling.
“We’re additionally proud to be offering Daimler Truck with a number of the essential refueling infrastructure and hydrogen as a part of the trials,” says Caroline Stancell, Common Supervisor (Europe and Africa area) of the Hydrogen for Mobility division at Air Products, a U.S.-based industrial gasoline provider collaborating within the venture. “Our newest cell fueling station for liquid hydrogen might be used for the venture within the Duisburg space and might subsequently function below actual circumstances.”
Daimler Truck’s Subsequent Steps
Because it has executed previously with security applied sciences it has spearheaded, Daimler has made the recipe for liquid hydrogen (LH2) publicly obtainable. It’s now an ISO standard. What’s extra, the automaker plans to work immediately with different firms to assist them develop their very own liquid hydrogen refueling and gas cell automobile applied sciences. The purpose, Daimler mentioned in a press launch, is to “set up a world mass marketplace for the brand new refueling course of.”
Daimler Truck is already at work with Linde on one other new course of for dealing with hydrogen cooled to the tremendous low temperatures at which it takes the type of a liquid. The automaker says that course of will yield even increased storage (and thus power) density with simpler refueling in contrast with the LH2 course of.
Daimler is laying the groundwork for making hydrogen a extra broadly obtainable automotive power modality. The corporate says additionally it is planning to work along with Shell, BP, and TotalEnergies to construct out hydrogen refueling infrastructure for main transport routes in Europe.
Pricing particulars on the GenH2 Truck have been unavailable at presstime. For comparability, Fleet Proprietor journal estimates a Nikola fuel-cell semi prices roughly $750,000—though Fleet Proprietor provides that incentives from the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act and California HVIP grants may, for some homeowners, reduce the price again by $40,000 and $288,000, respectively.
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