Hydrogen Vehicles
Words: Richard Simpson
FUEL OF THE FUTURE? Many people – not least those sceptical about electrification – believe hydrogen is the best option for next-generation long-haul trucks
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ooking at developments from truck manufacturers, there’s a general consensus that tomorrow’s longhaul truck fleet will be predominantly powered by hydrogen fuel cells. Put simply, passing electricity through water breaks it down into hydrogen and oxygen – and passing hydrogen through a fuel cell sees it combine with atmospheric oxygen to produce electricity and water. The process is highly entropic: far less electricity comes out than is put in and battery-electric guru Elon Musk describes them as “fool cells”, arguing that using electricity to charge batteries is far more efficient. In scientific terms, Musk is correct. However, in practical terms, that’s not the whole story. The amount of battery capacity needed to propel a heavy truck for any meaningful distance erodes so much payload as to make the exercise
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pointless. It may well be the reason that delivery of his own aptly-named ‘Semi’ battery-electric truck is now many years behind schedule. Digging deeper But adaptation of fuel cells is far from problem-free. JCB has examined both battery-electric and fuel cell as replacements for diesel internal combustion engines. Batteries, it found, worked well in small machines with short work cycles, such as mini-diggers. However, the weight of battery needed to power a big machine – such as a 20-tonne excavator – and the difficulty in recharging it on a site when it was working almost constantly made it impractical. It was a similar story for farm machinery: 18- to 24-hour days are routine on farms at busy times and charging points are few and far between in fields. JCB initially went down the fuel
M A G A Z I N E
spring 2022
