Nippon Gases Germany and HOYER Group have received a hydrogen-powered truck from hylane, which they will use to transport dry ice.
The truck is a Hyundai XCIENT fuel cell vehicle which hylane has equipped with a dry box and air ducts to meet the logistic requirements of Nippon Gases and HOYER.
Read more:Hyundai’s XCIENT fuel cell truck receives GREEN AWARD
H2 View understands that the vehicle has a range of up to 450km and can be refuelled in under 15 minutes, making it “ideal for everyday use to transport dry ice” according to HOYER’s online statement.
Mona Neubaur, Minister for Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, completed the first test run of the vehicle as the co-driver. She highlighted the importance of the technology to sustainable mobility in Germany.
“Hydrogen-powered fuel-cell trucks have their strengths as a result of short refuelling times and long ranges, which is exactly where battery-electric drives reach their limits,” Neubaur said.
“Therefore, the State supports the construction of hydrogen service stations for heavy goods vehicles and procurement initiatives such as HyTrucks.NRW.
“Because one thing is clear: reducing CO2 emissions in the transport sector is an important building block on North Rhine-Westphalia’s pathway to becoming Europe’s first climate-neutral industrial region.”
Christoph Laumen, Managing Director at Nippon Gases Germany, added, “Even with the single use of this new vehicle, we expect to save around 69,000kg of CO₂ in vehicle operation compared to conventional diesel trucks.
“In addition, we will gain important experience and knowledge that will enable us to use this CO₂-neutral transport for other products,” Laumen concluded.
Providing a hydrogen-fuelled roadmap for trucking
Despite growing calls to see hydrogen fuelling heavy-duty logistics applications, policymakers and fleet operators still need to see proof that the energy carrier can provide not only a clean transport solution but also a practical and feasible operation.
And that’s the goal of a five-truck trial now underway in northwest Europe between retail giant Amazon, INEOS Inovyn, Air Products, Holcim, Widemann & Winz and Daimler Truck.
Announced last December, Amazon, INEOS Inovyn, Widemann & Winz will use one of the Mercedes-Benz GenH 2 liquid hydrogen trucks in their European logistics.
Having kicked off the tests in July, Dirk Dupon, Head of Hydrogen at INEOS Inovyn, told H2 View, that despite the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) producer’s ambitions to cut 30% of emissions from its operations by 2030, it needs to prove to its customers that clean solutions are viable.
“We need to prove to our customers that we are able to do that and logistics is a big part of it,” he explained.
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