Credit: Scottish Power
‘Could a truck that’s powered by hydrogen and only emits water help in the climate change fight?’ – asks Sky News. Two problems there – ‘only emits water’ doesn’t tell the whole story as unwelcome nitrogen oxide comes into play, and ‘climate change fight’ belongs to mythology. Another difficulty (quote): ‘hydrogen still has problems as a power source. Making it from green electricity is currently expensive and far less energy efficient than plugging a battery into a charging point.’ Also (quote): ‘a switch to hydrogen would need 35.6GW of electricity to make it’ – over three times more than needed for comparable battery charging, according to the report.
– – –
Summary: The vehicle can be fuelled up with hydrogen in just 15 minutes and gives drivers 600 miles of range, the company behind it says, with the gas being stored in high pressure tanks designed to withstand impact.
. . .
British trials have started of a heavyweight truck powered by a gas that’s lighter than air – and emits nothing but water.
Sky News was given exclusive access to the first British designed and built heavy goods vehicle (HGV) to be fuelled by hydrogen as it was driven around the Horiba Mira test track in Warwickshire.
The Scottish manufacturers, HVS, say the truck could help decarbonise the road freight industry, which produces more than 21 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year in the UK alone.
Jawad Khursheed, the dentist-turned-entrepreneur who started the company, said: “It has the exact same feel of a diesel.
“HGV drivers generally drive up to four hours and then take a break.
“In 15-20 minutes they can refuel with hydrogen, and it’s good to go for another 600km.”
The truck stores hydrogen under high pressure in tanks that are designed to withstand impact. The gas is converted by a fuel cell into electricity, which then drives the wheels.
A battery that delivers similar range would weigh several tonnes, reducing the amount of freight that can be carried. And it would currently take several hours to recharge, significant downtime for fleet operators.
Macky Arthur, the prototype’s test driver, told Sky News: “You don’t have the roar of a diesel vehicle, you don’t have the fumes of a diesel vehicle.
“It’s a nice place to live and work.”
But hydrogen still has problems as a power source. Making it from green electricity is currently expensive and far less energy efficient than plugging a battery into a charging point.
Continued here.
– – –
Power Engineering says: ‘minimizing NOx emissions will remain a concern in the coming era of H2– and NH3-based combustion systems.’
Tallbloke's Talkshop 
What’s the cost per mile for this Hydrogen truck, compared to good ol’ diesel?
tallbloke, you are not supposed to ask questions like that.
My question is, how much extra weight does the heavy duty fuel tanks add to the total weight of the truck and where are the hydrogen fuel stations?
Podcast
All aboard: Can hydrogen decarbonise our roads?
Saturday 8 July 2023
The biggest fleet of hydrogen buses in Europe have hit the roads in Crawley as operators bet big on the gas as fuel, rather than electric batteries.
They’re more expensive to produce than electric vehicles and refuelling stations are few and far between, but can hydrogen transport help us on the road to net-zero?
https://news.sky.com/story/all-aboard-can-hydrogen-decarbonise-our-roads-12917232
About 12 hydrogen stations on the UK mainland…
https://www.glpautogas.info/en/hydrogen-stations-united-kingdom.html
Cost estimates of green hydrogen seem to range from ‘expensive’ to ‘staggeringly expensive’, with claims of future reductions.
– – –
Bus update:
Go-Ahead Group subsidiary Metrobus has launched it first 20 Wrightbus GB Kite Hydrolider hydrogen fuel cell-electric buses in the Crawley, Horley, and Gatwick Airport areas.
The fleet currently consists of 20 buses, with plans to add 34 more Wrightbus examples over the next 18 months. Once completed, it will become one of the largest hydrogen bus fleets in the UK, backed by over £4.3m in funding from the Ultra-Low Emission Bus Scheme. The buses will be fuelled by a liquid hydrogen refuelling station, believed to be the first of its kind for buses in Europe. [bold added]
https://www.route-one.net/news/metrobus-launches-hydrogen-fleet-in-crawley-and-gatwick/
Get a hefty subsidy and away you go.
And what does the exhausted water do to the exhaust piping? I’ve never had to replace the exhaust system on any of my diesels, the oldest, 34 years.
Isn’t water vapour the most powerful greenhouse gas?
The New York net-zero transition clown show activists don’t want green hydrogen used in anything but a fuel cell so there are no NOx emissions. That just adds another layer of complexity to a system that proposes to use a colorless, odorless, hard to store gas that is explosive. What could possibly go wrong?
a strawman fighting a phony “war” against a hoax. Is that from The Babylon Bee??
That is my question also.
Why would anyone claiming global warming is the problem want to replace a minor, not very effective greenhouse gas CO2, with a much more effective greenhouse gas, water vapour?
The reference in the article concerning NOX emissions is only relevant to hydrogen combustion and does not apply to fuel cells.
[reply] well spotted, the NOx issue would only apply to leaks in this case
“‘a switch to hydrogen would need 35.6GW of electricity to make it’ –” is a total load of gibberish which can only have been written by a complete scientific illiterate. A watt is a unit of instant power, a watt-hour is the unit of energy applicable. But hey who cares about facts.
Is the liquid hydrogen cryogenic? What did that cost? How are the refueling stations refueled? How many psi? Accidents waiting to happen
It is worth noting the fun NASA have with cryogenic hydrogen even after around 75 years of experience with it.
https://www.space.com/artemis-1-launch-scrub-hydrogen-leak
Telegraph: The wind and solar power myth has finally been exposed
The necessary miracle doesn’t exist
10 May 2023
Hydrogen is another technology which is often suggested for energy storage: but its problems are legion. At the moment hydrogen is made using natural gas (so-called “blue” hydrogen). This, however, will have to stop in a net-zero world as the process emits large amounts of carbon: you might as well just burn the natural gas. Proper emissions-free “green” hydrogen is made from water using huge amounts of electrical energy, 60 per cent of which is lost in the process. Storing and handling the hydrogen is extremely difficult because hydrogen is a very small molecule and it leaks through almost anything. At best this means that a lot of your stored hydrogen will be gone by the time you want to use it: at worst it means devastating fires and explosions. The extremely low density of hydrogen also means that huge volumes of it would have to be stored and it would often have to be stored and handled cryogenically, creating even more losses, costs and risks. [bold added]
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/10/wind-solar-renewables-pointless-waste/
– – –
Government net zero propaganda is a bad joke.
Expectations about EU hydrogen goals are ‘unrealistic’, EDP CEO says
The European Union’s goals for production of green hydrogen by 2030 are inflated and unrealistic, the CEO of Portugal’s main utility EDP, said on Tuesday (11 July), citing regulatory uncertainty and slow progress so far.
https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy-environment/news/expectations-about-eu-hydrogen-goals-are-unrealistic-edp-ceo-says/
– – –
Most things in today’s artificial climate world are ‘inflated and unrealistic’.
Whitby rejects hydrogen…
Now it’s Redcar’s turn to face the unwelcome attentions of net zeroists.
Yet more hydrogen hype?
Limitless ‘white’ hydrogen under our feet may soon shatter all energy assumptions
There’s a real possibility that vast reserves of this clean fuel can be extracted at competitive costs
AMBROSE EVANS-PRITCHARD
13 July 2023
Scientists have long argued that pockets of exploitable geological hydrogen are more abundant than hitherto supposed.
. . .
The US Geological Survey concluded in April that there is probably enough accessible hydrogen in the earth’s subsurface to meet total global demand for “hundreds of years”.
The US Energy Department is drawing up plans to help kick start the industry, deeming the potential “astronomical”.
. . .
The big oil and gas drillers are watching from the sidelines, just as they did at the start of fracking. “Investors want to see the first demonstration that you can drill for hydrogen on purpose rather than finding it by accident,” said Dr Zgonnik.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/07/13/white-hydrogen-disrupt-global-energy-net-zero/
Many things have had *potential* and got nowhere, so let’s see.
– – –
Excitement grows about ‘natural hydrogen’ as huge reserves found in France
30 June 2023
…“this would be the lowest-carbon and cheapest hydrogen in the world,” said Mikaa Mered, a hydrogen specialist and professor at Science-Po Paris who sits on the expert committee of the Forum Hydrogen Business for Climate conference in France.
. . .
The unknown scale of deposits makes things more complicated, which would require international consensus about mining.
“At the end of the year, the US government will publish the first international study to quantify the resource”, Mered added.
https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy-environment/news/excitement-grows-about-natural-hydrogen-as-huge-reserves-found-in-france/
Shapps backs off…
Friday 14 July 2023
Shapps explained, “There was a time when people thought you just have something that looks like a gas boiler and we’ll feed hydrogen into it.”
However, he highlighted the limitations, stating, “The problem with that is the hydrogen molecules are very small. You have to replace potentially quite a lot of piping.”
Refill? Oh, of course,,there’s a nationwide successful campaign to fit petrol stations with vast underground tanks capable of storing hydrogen under serious pressure. Local dwellings insellable
Hydrogen heating revolution feared over before it has begun
With British Gas and Grant Shapps disagreeing over the fuel’s future, will it end up another Boris Johnson pipe dream?
18 July 2023
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/07/18/hydrogen-heating-revolution-feared-over-before-it-has-begun/
– – –
Where’s all the ‘green’ hydrogen supposed to come from? Plus boiler conversions or replacements, pipe upgrades, storage of an explosive gas, etc.