It may have seemed like hydrogen has had some ordinary press of late with Fortescue’s Andrew Forrest slowing some of his hydrogen projects and critics giving the energy source tough time, but one of the pioneers of hydrogen technology with trucks, Daimler, is pressing ahead with its use of the World’s most abundant element.
Daimler has reported that the first of its hydrogen fuel cell trucks has now been deployed in real-life operation at the start of initial customer trials with its Mercedes-Benz GenH2 Trucks
The trucks have started initial customer trials with five GenH2 powered Mercedes trucks have started work in Europe with customers including Amazon, Air Products, Holcim, INEOS and Wiedmann and Winz.
The company says these customers have the opportunity to gain practical experience in long-distance transport with fuel cell trucks at an early stage during a trial phase of around a year.
The company says that the development team will also acquire valuable insights into the real-life operations of trucks powered by liquid hydrogen, and will learn about specific customer requirements and can take them into account for series development.
Daimler Trucks is one of the world’s largest commercial vehicle manufacturers, if not the largest, and it has continually stated it is driving sustainable transportation forward with a variety of zero tailpipe emission technologies for its trucks.
The company says its objective is to offer only new vehicles that are CO2-neutral in driving operation across its global core markets, including the EU, USA and Japan, by 2039. It says that hydrogen-based drive technologies can thereby be an optimal solution, especially for very flexible and particularly demanding applications in heavy-duty and long-distance haulage.
Daimler says that on the path towards decarbonising transport, it is nowentering the next development phase for its fuel cell trucks. After a rigorous testing phase on the test track and on public roads, it says the GenH2 Trucks have now reached an advanced development stage for deployment in the first customer fleets.
At the Daimler Truck Test and Development Center in Woerth am Rhein, chairman of the board of management for Daimler Truck, Martin Daum, celebrated the start of the initial customer trials of the five Benz GenH2 fuel cell prototype trucks in the presence of Hildegard Müller, the president of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), and also with Amazon, Air Products, Holcim, Ineos and Wiedmann & Winz.
The five GenH2 Trucks will be deployed in different long-haul applications on specific routes in Germany, including transporting building materials, sea containers or gas cylinders.
It says that during these first customer trials the vehicles will remain under the direct supervision and responsibility of Daimler. It says the trucks will be refuelled at a designated liquid hydrogen filling stations in Woerth am Rhein and also in future in the Duisburg region.
Daimler chairman, Martin Daum, said that when it comes to decarbonising transport, the company is focusing on battery-electric and hydrogen-based drives.
“The transformation can only succeed if green energy is sufficiently and comprehensively available, and for this we need both technologies,” Daum said.
“With regard to hydrogen drives, we are now taking another important step towards series readiness starting the trials of our GenH2 Trucks in real-life daily transport operations with our customers,” he said.
“However, it is important to note that high-performance CO2-neutral vehicles alone will not be enough to make sustainable transportation successful.
“This also requires a corresponding charging and refueling infrastructure, as well as cost parity with conventional vehicles. Although policymakers and energy companies are already active here, we urgently need even more momentum, across entire Europe, ” Daum concluded.
The German Association of the Automotive Industry’s Hildegard Müller said that on the path towards the climate-neutral mobility of the future, the potential of all available technologies should be exploited.
“This is particularly so when it comes to heavy-duty commercial vehicles, e-mobility cannot be equated exclusively with battery-electric drive,” Müller said.
“Rather, the fuel cell drive powered by hydrogen must also be considered as part of the diversity of available technologies.
“Manufacturers have the corresponding models in development and production, and now the political framework conditions must finally be created. It needs-based network of hydrogen filling stations and the associated infrastructure must be built up urgently, so there is an urgent need for action for politicians, the German Federal Network Agency and the energy industry,” Müller said.
Daimler says that the five semi-trailer prime movers will be used by customers in various long-haul applications throughout the trial period with Amazon using the GenH2 Truck in its logistics operations in Germany, Air Products using them for the transport of gas cylinders, Wiedmann & Winz transporting sea containers, Holcim carting building materials, and Ineos’s logistics company Vervaeke putting the trucks to work for PVC and vinyl transport.
Daimler Truck development engineers say they have based the GenH2 Truck around the characteristics of the conventional Mercedes-Benz Actros long-haul truck, in terms of payload, range and performance.
They also say that the GenH2 Trucks offer a payload of approx. 25 tonness at a gross combination weight of 40 tonnes, so about the equivalent of a single trailer rig used on Australian roads. Two special liquid hydrogen tanks and a powerful fuel-cell system, developed and created by Cellcentric, the Daimler Truck and Volvo Group joint hydrogen fuel venture development company, are what enable the high payload and long range according to the company, which says they represent the centerpiece of the GenH2 Truck.
The fuel-cell system delivers two 140 kW cells deliver a combined 300 kilowatts of power and the truck’s battery provides an additional 400 kW temporarily.
At 70 kWh, the storage capacity of the battery is relatively low, because it’s not intended to meet all the energy needs of the truck, but primarily it is designed to be switched on to provide situational power support for the fuel cell, for example during peak loads while accelerating or while driving uphill fully loaded.
At the same time, the relatively light battery allows a higher payload. The battery is recharged with braking energy and excess fuel-cell energy.
A core element of the operating strategy of the fuel-cell and battery system is a cooling and heating system that keeps all components at a suitable operating temperature, ensuring maximum durability according to Daimler.
In a company says that in a pre-series version, the two electric motors are designed for a total of two x 230kW of continuous power and two x 330 kW of maximum power., with the truck’s driveline delivering torque of two x 1,577 Nm continuous or two x 2,071 Nm maximum.
The two stainless-steel liquid-hydrogen storage tanks on the Truck have a total storage capacity of 88 kilograms, with 44 kg in each. Daimler claims this is, perfectly suited for covering long distances, while the stainless-steel tank system consists of two tubes, one within the other, that are vacuum isolated and connected to each other.
Daimler Truck says it prefers liquid hydrogen in the development of hydrogen-based drives, because, in this aggregate state the energy carrier has a significantly higher energy density. This means more hydrogen can be carried, significantly increasing the range and enabling comparable performance to a conventional diesel truck.
It added that transport efforts can be significantly reduced with liquid hydrogen, with liquid hydrogen tanks also offering advantages in terms of cost and weight compared to compressed gaseous hydrogen.
This means that the use of liquid hydrogen enables a higher payload, which the company says makes the GenH2 truck as suitable for flexible and demanding long-haul road transportation as conventional diesel trucks.
Daimler Truck says it has also successfully demonstrated this back in September 2023, when a public road approved prototype completed a Hydrogen Record Run, covering 1,047 km with one tank of liquid hydrogen on board.
Chairman, president and CEO of Air Products, Seifi Ghasemi said that with thousands of trucks delivering industrial gases to its customers every day, logistics is an integral part of the company’s business.
“Trialing a Mercedes-Benz GenH2 Truck under real conditions is a critical step in our work to convert our distribution fleet to hydrogen powered vehicles,” said Ghasemi.
“On the pathway to sustainable transportation, safe and reliable production, transportation, and distribution of renewable hydrogen across the entire value chain is also essential. This is Air Products’ proven area of expertise, and we’re proud to be providing critical refueling infrastructure and liquid hydrogen as part of this project,” he added.
