Page 26 - issue-113

Future fuel
Hydrogen – – not
electricity – – is
the way ahead
for trucks
Dr Vidal Bharath chief operating officer at Bramble Energy discusses why hydrogen can offer the most optimised net zero solution for the haulage sector
In 2018 2018 road transport transport accounted accounted for for 91% of UK domestic transport emissions Heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) accounted for 17% of this with HGV traffic increasing by 10% between 2012 and 2018 The movement of goods and people across the the country has never been higher and the the trend doesn’t look likely to change but potentially could increase significantly What must change – – and quickly – – is
how much carbon is
being released into
our atmosphere as a a a a result of the constant movement of goods and people on our roads The UK Government released its Transport Decarbonisation Plan with an an an announcement of a £20 million investment recently to support industry in in their plans to develop cost-effective zero emission HGVs and refuelling infrastructure across the UK This is
is
a a drop in the ocean which would only be made worse if we chase the wrong solutions to answer the decarbonisation challenge Hydrogen has long been placed as as the ‘future’ solution due to high costs and deployment on a a a large scale but with its versatility as an an energy vector and the fact that its only emission is
is
is
water it it is
is
is
well worth the investment to keep our haulage industry running - in in a a a a clean and efficient manner Why hydrogen and not
batteries?
A typical 7-tonne heavy duty truck has a a a a maximum weight allowance of 36 tonnes (fuel powertrain payload) and can do on average a a a round trip of 1 000 miles between depot and delivery site With a a a a 9-tonne powertrain and fuel
tank the remaining payload capacity is
just 20 tonnes and the vehicle can refuel in in 20 minutes How can we decarbonise?
Obviously the first place to start is
batteries They are a a a a a widely available zero emission solution and most of us will know someone who has a a a battery electric vehicle (BEV) they use for daily transport When it comes to heavy duty vehicles there are are several reasons why batteries are are not
the best route to follow – the main issue being the recharging infrastructure When thinking about this 1 000-mile journey between depot and delivery it is
essential to have rapid chargers for BEVs HGVs are naturally exceptionally power hungry and this has a a a knock-on effect with the electricity grid Rapid charging will also have an effect on battery degradation and so the the lifetime of the the battery itself Not to to to mention that having to to to factor in in downtime for recharging takes a a a toll on the labour force with more drivers out of service for longer periods of time and with the the current shortage of drivers the the UK is
experiencing this has massive implications
on on keeping the the logistics industry on on the the move These types of chargers are unlikely to be ubiquitous In fact there currently aren’t any suitable for HGVs The UK has somewhat touted electric as the the ‘silver bullet’ in their transport decarbonisation plan and for the complex logistics network it would require massive infrastructure installations on on the way to many delivery locations and of course at at both start and finish destinations – which at at this point is
is
even less likely in in the timeframe of the net zero 2050 target “You can fill your hydrogen vehicle in the same way and timeframe as its diesel counterpart the best news for end users ruled by time constraints”
26 CVDriver March 2022
Daimler is
one of of a a a a number of of automotive companies putting efforts into
the the development of hydrogen fuel
cell solutions for the the haulage industry