Hydrogen road transport is well on its way – TTM.
After the introduction of HyTrucks in the spring of 2020 and the announcement of the ambition to run at least 1000 trucks on hydrogen in the Netherlands, Belgium and West Germany by 2025, more and more parties have indicated that they want to join this initiative and that they want to work together on freight transport based on hydrogen.
The initiative of Air Liquide and the Port of Rotterdam has now been expanded to more than 60 parties in three countries, and is carried out in close cooperation between the ports of Rotterdam, Antwerp and Duisburg.
These are hydrogen suppliers, truck manufacturers, operators of filling stations, transporters and shippers. There are still parties that would like to participate.
In addition to electrification and other existing alternatives, clean hydrogen is needed in the energy mix to ensure that heavy road transport takes place emission-free.
With the developments in the field of both the trucks and the network, it will be possible to travel long distances with a truck that runs on hydrogen. This makes it feasible to achieve the European climate objectives, and to introduce and maintain zero emission zones in cities.
The transition to fully green hydrogen is an important condition that, thanks to policy and support from the government, we are working towards together.
‘The transition to zero-emission transport is one of the major challenges facing the transport sector. In addition to the fact that Vos Logistics has been working intensively for years to reduce emissions, the sector as a whole will now really have to do this.
The application of hydrogen plays an important role in this, in addition to battery-electric. From our experience with the use of LNG, 12 years ago, we know that the use of a completely new fuel such as hydrogen is complex.
Through this experience, we have learned that we can only achieve this ambition by working intensively with all parties involved in the chain. That is our motivation to participate in Hytrucks.’ – Frank Verhoeven, CEO Vos Logistics
HyTrucks is one of the largest projects in Europe for the development of hydrogen-powered trucks and the associated infrastructure. The project aims to improve air quality and reduce CO2 emissions by an estimated 100,000 tonnes, the equivalent of 110 million truck kilometres.
No transport without a network
Refueling hydrogen is actually not new. From various locations in the country, buses and passenger cars, taxis and also some hydrogen-powered trucks are already running in the Netherlands. Important for trucks is the speed at which refueling can be done with a large amount of hydrogen.
A truck simply consumes more than a passenger car and truck drivers have tight delivery schedules. In addition, trucks cannot always refuel at the same place, because they do not travel fixed routes from one central point.
A good and solid hydrogen network is essential to make the use of hydrogen in heavy road transport successful for the aforementioned parties.
In this area too, HyTrucks has now taken a number of crucial steps to put hydrogen on the map, including some twenty-five hydrogen filling stations along the main transport corridors between the Netherlands, Belgium and the Ruhr area in Germany.
This makes hydrogen a good and serious alternative for transporters. The European standardization and the cooperation with other international truck projects will make it possible to roll this out on a large scale and not to limit it to the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.
Increasing demand for sustainable transport
The demand for sustainable transport and the use of hydrogen is growing steadily and it is therefore expected that the first hydrogen-powered trucks in this project will be on the road in 2024.
Large shippers such as Albert Heijn have also indicated that they want to take the first concrete steps to achieve this ambition.
This company has already done a lot in the field of electric driving, and continues to do so, but also sees salvation in hydrogen-powered trucks and will explore this option. Albert Heijn is not the only company that actively focuses on this.
Peter Leegstraten, Manager Transport Expertise, Albert Heijn:
Albert Heijn is determined to take major steps quickly towards Zero Emission transport. In recent years, we have intensively tested the battery electric trucks based on this ambition.
“We are positive about the future of battery-electric transport, but at the same time we are determined to explore further technical possibilities.”
“Now that there are workable solutions for fuel cells based on green hydrogen, Albert Heijn is very interested in testing this in our intensive 24/7 distribution process. Hydrogen can be a good solution for this intensive transport.”
In the coming years, hydrogen-powered trucks will probably increasingly supply the shops and logistics centres of well-known brands. In the second episode of TTM.nl Talk, there was extensive discussion about the introduction of hydrogen in road transport. Thanks for staying up to date with Hydrogen Central.
Unique collaboration
In order to achieve HyTrucks’ target of 1000 hydrogen trucks on the road by 2025 – many companies work closely together and business interests are set aside in the light of the climate objectives.
This is a unique partnership, which should make it possible to scale up quickly and thoroughly. Europe welcomes and supports these types of collaborations to achieve the climate objectives. All the ingredients to achieve the ambitious goal are available. Together we ensure that it is successful.
Ruud Jongeneel, Managing Director Jongeneel Transport, said:
Our participation in HyTrucks stems from the corporate social responsibility that we as a family business hold in high regard.
“The use of green hydrogen as fuel for our trucks is the way for us to emission-free transport.”
What does the HyTrucks project entail?
The partners of the HyTrucks project have the mission to decarbonize heavy road transport in Europe by means of clean hydrogen. This is based on the vision that heavy road transport must be made operationally and financially feasible for transport companies by means of a focused but large-scale kick-start project.
The partners of the HyTrucks project therefore aim for:
- The roll-out of a network of 25 hydrogen filling stations for heavy road transport along the main European TEN-T corridors in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany
- The construction of 1,000 hydrogen-powered trucks
- The use of these trucks and filling station in normal commercial operations from 2024
- The production of 40 tons of clean hydrogen per day to be delivered to the hydrogen filling stations.
- A network of hydrogen filling stations where all trucks can refuel at all stations
The result that all parties strive for, by participating in this project:
These first 1,000 trucks within the project represent a reduction in CO2 emissions of 120,000 tons per year. In Europe, a total of around 6.1 million lorries drive around, for heavy road transport over longer distances. If they run on hydrogen, a reduction in CO2 emissions of 732 million tons per year will be achieved.
The first 1,000 trucks represent a reduction in diesel consumption of 37 million litres of diesel per year. If all 6.1 million trucks were no longer running on diesel, but on hydrogen, this would result in a reduction in diesel consumption in Europe of 227 billion liters of diesel on an annual basis.
READ the latest news shaping the hydrogen market at Hydrogen Central
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