WaterstofNet partner in largest European heavy-duty project 'H2Haul'

WaterstofNet joins the ‘H2Haul’ project, in which IVECO and VDL will develop fuel cell electric heavy-duty trucks for European markets. A consortium of leading European truck manufacturers, fuel cell suppliers, and hydrogen refuelling infrastructure providers launched the project today in Brussels. The project will run for 5 years and has been made possible by a grant of €12m from the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU). 

The purpose of the H2Haul project is to develop and test fleets of zero emission trucks and hydrogen refuelling stations. IVECO, supported by sister company FPT Industrial, and VDL will design, build, and test three new types of fuel cell electric heavy duty trucks, including rigid and articulated vehicles up to 44 tonnes. Fuel cell systems for the vehicles will be provided by three different suppliers: ElringKlinger, Hydrogenics, and Powercell.

A total of 16 vehicles will be tested in real-world operations at 4 demonstration sites (in Belgium, France, Germany, and Switzerland). The innovative hydrogen refuelling stations to be deployed will offer rapid, high capacity fuelling and thus support the demonstration of how fuel cell trucks can operate as direct replacements for diesel vehicles.

The following organisations are participating in the H2Haul project: Air Liquide, Element Energy Limited, ElringKlinger, Eoly, FPT Industrial, Hydrogen Europe, Hydrogenics, IRU Projects, IVECO, Powercell Sweden, THINKSTEP, VDL Enabling Transport Solutions, WaterstofNet. The trucks will be operated by BMW (DHL), Coop, Colruyt Group, Carrefour Group, and Air Liquide. 

WaterstofNet’s role in the project is to analyse the life cycle cost (LLC) of the trucks within different use cases. WaterstofNet will also develop a roadmap for heavy-duty in Europe, in close cooperation with an observer group of major stakeholders.

Adwin Martens, director of WatertofNet: “As WaterstofNet we already initiated two heavy-duty projects: the first development of trucks on hydrogen started in our region: Hydrogen region 2.0 (40 ton truck-trailer) and H2-Share (27 ton rigid truck). We are proud to be part of this strategically important project ‘H2Haul’, which is the next step for hydrogen in heavy-duty. It perfectly fits in our ‘step-by-step’ approach for implementing hydrogen in new promising areas.”

Read the full press release.
Learn more at www.h2haul.eu and follow @H2Haul for updates and news. 

‘The H2Haul project has received funding from the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2 Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No 826236. This Joint Undertaking receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, Hydrogen Europe and Hydrogen Europe Research’.