Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumGeneral Motors Did Not Get The Hydrogen Fuel Cell Memo, Either - CleanTechnica's Tina Casey strikes again
GM is pouring 50 years of R&D into a new hydrogen fuel cell truck venture with the leading vocational truck maker Komatsu.
General Motors Did Not Get The Hydrogen Fuel Cell Memo, Either
Tina Casey | Clean Technica | December 13, 2023
General Motors raised eyebrows last week, when it announced a hydrogen fuel cell partnership with the US specialty truck firm Autocar. Apparently that was just the tip of the fuel cell iceberg. GM has just announced a new partnership with another leading truck maker, Komatsu. The new venture is aimed at decarbonizing Komatsus gigantic 930E electric drive mining truck. Wait, isnt that already an electric truck?
A Hydrogen Fuel Cell For Next-Level Electrification
Almost every freight train in the US runs on electric drive, so its no surprise to see other heavy duty use cases for electrified mobility, including mining trucks and others that fall into the vocational use category, such as construction, waste hauling and forestry, among others.
The catch is that this type of electric mobility deploys an on-board, diesel-powered generator. In other words, its a diesel-electric hybrid system.
Diesel-electric locomotives began to appear in the US about 100 years ago and they quickly caught on, offering improvements in performance and fuel efficiency. A similar calculation is at work for specialized heavy duty trucks deployed in mining, construction, forestry and other heavy industries.
The problem is that diesel-electric drive still produces diesel emissions. In recent years railway stakeholders have begun to introduce batteries and fuel cells to replace diesel fuel. The going has been slow, but the payoff is 100% electrification and zero-emission operations...more
https://cleantechnica.com/2023/12/13/general-motors-hydrogen-fuel-cell-truck-komatsu/
Tina Casey, CleanTechnica DEC 10, 2023
Clearly Ford Did Not Get The Fuel Cell Truck Memo: F-MAX Is Ready To Roll
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1127171166
It's December 2023 and there is a river of hydrogen news. The H2 future is now.
sabbat hunter
(6,893 posts)saying for a while we need to invest more in fuel cell technology for cars, trucks. We can convert existing gas stations to fuel up hydrogen tanks without too much difficulty. The only exhaust from fuel cell is water vapor.
Think. Again.
(17,996 posts)...and I think that building out a battery-based electric car industry based on limited-supply commodities such as lithium is going to be a long, wasteful, side-trip before we have to eventually switch again to H2 for all vehicles.
Caribbeans
(978 posts)Exactly !
So much nonsense about having to build an entirely new infrastructure.
Germany can do it
Shell Hydrogen Station, Cloppenburger Straße 154, 26133 Oldenburg, Germany | EUR 13.85 per Kilogram which is USD $14.92 per Kilogram- less than 1/2 of the outrageously high $36/Kg in California
See a live map of Germany's ~90 something hydrogen stations - with prices HERE:
https://h2-mobility.de/en/our-h2-stations/
Here's a BMW VP that explains that Germany's hydrogen station network works just fine