Hydrogen has been called a fuel of the future, but at a testing track in England, designers of a sleek new lorry are trying to get the wheels turning now.
The lorry, made by British start-up HVS, runs on electricity made from four hydrogen cylinders and is meant to “radically shake up” the mainly diesel-powered industry, said chief designer Pete Clarke.
Britain has a 2040 target to ban new diesel lorries, but operators “are mostly sitting on their hands waiting for zero-emission solutions”, Mr Clarke told The National at the test pad.
We rode in a slick demonstration vehicle that has cameras instead of wing mirrors, a fold-out bed in the cab, a range of about 600 kilometres and battery storage to top up power when the hydrogen tank runs out.
Using hydrogen – the most abundant element in the universe, which produces only water when burned as a fuel – is a cornerstone of go-green climate plans in the UK and Europe.
There are plans to use hydrogen for heating, transport, electricity generation and even aviation. Gulf countries have plans to export it, with the UAE hoping to be a “reliable producer and supplier” by 2031.
But to date, hydrogen is produced in small, expensive quantities and has to be hived off from water in a process that leaves the planet no better off when this is done using fossil fuels.
Insiders talk about a “chicken and egg problem” in which customers will not switch to hydrogen until it is cheaper, and producers will not make it cheaply until there is demand.
Engineers at HVS – which was on the brink of liquidation before businessman Jawad Khursheed bought it out for a token £1 ($1.27) in 2020 – are among those trying to break this cycle.
They secured a £25 million ($31.8 million) investment from a petrol station company called EG Group, which was recently taken over by supermarket chain Asda – potentially marrying a seller with a buyer.
Big names in the market such as Volvo, Daimler and the Volkswagen-owned Scania have their own plans for hydrogen. Germany's Bosch recently announced the start of production of a hydrogen power module for lorries.
What Mr Khursheed wants to do is emulate Elon Musk’s Tesla, which shook up the electric car scene before some large manufacturers had got into gear.
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“That’s our opportunity. That’s our foot in the door,” Mr Khursheed tells staff, so that “by the time the big boys come in we’ve got a reputable brand”.
But staff are realistic that the coming years could be “quite painful” for the market and warn that they could move manufacturing abroad if Britain does not offer enough incentives.
Any failure or move offshore for HVS would represent another setback to the UK’s clean tech industry after the collapse of battery firm Britishvolt and the struggles of electric van start-up Arrival.
“It’s really important that the UK maintains its pre-existing climate pledges,” said Mr Clarke.
“We have every ambition and aspiration of building in the UK, but we need the UK government to catch up as well.”
Hydrogen buses
Buses, taxis, police cars and bin lorries could also be powered by hydrogen.
Hydrogen buses have already been used in Aberdeen, Scotland, and a fleet has been acquired to run near London Gatwick Airport. Shell has opened refuelling stations in the Netherlands.
Mayors in Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic have been invited to make their cities a “living lab” for hydrogen in a project backed by €340,000 ($369,000) of EU money.
Two winning cities will get money from the H2Cities project to try out branded hydrogen vehicles and build up a local supply chain.
“There’s an educational element. We want multiple vehicles looking the same on the city street to get people to talk,” said Gareth MacNaughton, the project director from the European Institute of Innovation and Technology.
“Usually if you’ve got a plan and a strategy, and often a political leader who’s a little bit visionary, who’s willing to bash things and get things done and push approvals, it really helps finding the city where you’ve got a willpower.”
Like with HVS, the goal is to use green hydrogen, which is produced by renewable means, but ultimately there is no guaranteeing what customers will fuel their tanks with.
Germany recently said it expects to import two thirds of its future hydrogen supply. The EU is looking to the Gulf as part of a strategy to import 10 million tonnes by 2030.
The German strategy was criticised for allowing subsidies to go to hydrogen made from non-renewable sources – variously known as blue, grey, orange or turquoise – while Berlin waits for green to become the norm.
There is also white hydrogen, extracted from under the ground. A British drilling company, Getech, announced this week it would use its expertise in finding copper, zinc and lithium to dig out natural hydrogen.
“Right now, the accessibility of fully green hydrogen is a real challenge. Therefore we have to accept interim solutions, which means we can have provision from locally sourced hydrogen,” said Mr MacNaughton.
“It may not be green, but the intention is that it moves to green.”
Rapid refuelling
Leading car makers such as Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz are banking heavily on electric batteries rather than hydrogen.
But a key selling point for HVS is that a hydrogen lorry can be refuelled in only 15 to 20 minutes, while a battery version might have to be plugged in overnight.
Batteries big enough to power a lorry would also be very heavy – the same reason electric jumbo jets are not a realistic prospect with current technology. The air industry is also looking into hydrogen.
Another belief at HVS is that hydrogen could get off the ground with relatively few refuelling stations across the UK because most lorries use the same few trunk roads.
If that goes well, there are plans to build a left-hand drive model that could be sold in mainland Europe.
The hope is that the design, quick pit stops, relatively long lifespan due to few mechanical parts wearing out, and a falling cost of hydrogen over time will make up for an upfront cost that is “not the most palatable”, said Mr Clarke.
The company says fleet operators have been impressed by the easy refuelling, the progress that HVS has made in building a model vehicle within three years of its near-collapse, and are more interested in the cost over a longer period.
It is common to hear hydrogen hype, but HVS is unusual in that it puts all its eggs in that basket while acknowledging the challenges it faces.
“We are by no means saying that this endeavour is an easy one,” said Mr Clarke.
“The industry needs to change and, quite frankly, hurry up.”
