Hydrogen: a clean break, or business as usual for the haulage world?
Hydrogen and haulage: a full house for the fuel cell
One consequence of this bias is that it favours the hydrogen fuel cell sector. In essence, a fuel cell vehicle is a battery-powered vehicle with an on-board power generation unit based on a proton exchange membrane (PEM) cell.
A number of manufacturers have positioned themselves in this market, starting with the long-established Canadian fuel cell manufacturer Ballard. Other players on the other side of the Atlantic include Accelera and GM. But Toyota, Hyundai, and Europe's Symbio, PlasticOmnium and have quickly moved into the market to forge partnerships with manufacturers. Since 2022, the research institute IFP Energies Nouvelles has been carrying out tests and developments at its Solaize facility (in the Isère department) to optimise on-board energy management and compare the performance of fuel cells and hydrogen-powered internal combustion engines.
This is obviously the most radical option, and is bringing new contenders into the heavy-duty vehicle market, such as Germany's Quantron and France's Hyliko. Hyliko offers an all-inclusive package combining energy and a vehicle on a mileage-based lease. This is to compensate for a price that dissuades road transport operators. Indeed, one of the major obstacles still to be overcome is the price of the vehicle, combining batteries and a fuel cell. This explains why some companies are interested in retrofitting diesel vehicles with hydrogen. These include GCK Mobility, Hyliko and Safra for heavy-duty vehicles, and Tolv and Qinomic for light commercial vehicles. Others have made announcements, such as the Green'Mot design and testing bureau. Still others are pure assemblers, such as IBF H2.
Despite a propitious regulatory environment, homologation procedures (particularly for components) and conversion costs (for vehicles that have already begun their active life) are obstacles that should not be underestimated. A number of potential clients have already declared their interest, but there is still a long way to go before a mass market is reached where development costs can be amortised. The fuel cell electric heavy-duty vehicle revolution, while palpable at trade shows, has not yet materialised in the marketplace. The bankruptcy of e-Neo in 2023 should give us cause for caution. As for traditional engine manufacturers, they are hurriedly dragging their feet: although Daimler and Volvo have joined forces via CellCentric and Traton is developing fuel cells, they believe that fuel cells will continue to be reserved for heavy-duty applications and long-range vehicles.
Hydrogen saved by the ICE?
The surprise has come from the development by a large number of engine manufacturers (Cummins, DAF, Iveco FPT Industrial, Traton, Volvo Trucks) of hydrogen combustion engines. Design offices such as Keyou and FEV have also developed solutions for converting diesel and CNG engines to hydrogen combustion. Recently, an agreement was reached between Wesport and the Volvo Group for dual-fuel solutions to be grouped together in a joint venture.
There are a number of reasons for this interest: firstly, there is the re-use of manufacturers' production facilities, which would preserve jobs, plants and associated know-how in Europe. There is also the fact that combustion engines are less demanding in terms of dihydrogen purity than fuel cells. Their ‘’hardiness‘’ and lifespan are strong arguments for industrial applications.
What's more, as the specialists at IFP Energies Nouvelles have measured, the efficiency of hydrogen engines - like CNG engines - is better at full load, i.e. at high power levels. The exact opposite is produced by fuel cells. For a heavy-duty vehicle, this is a clear advantage. For equipment manufacturers, particularly those specialising in supercharging and pollution control (such as BorgWarner), there are still a few challenges to be resolved, but they are technically within their grasp. It remains to be seen whether the regulatory window created by the RED-II Directive on ‘clean’ fuels will be legally stable enough for manufacturers to commit to investments. Although this is a promising option, it is still handicapped by two well-known additional costs in the fuel cell sector: the price of tanks (and their low storage capacity in kg of dihydrogen) and the price of the molecule of so-called ‘green’ dihydrogen (or dihydrogen from so-called ‘renewable’ production sources).
