Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - 12

TECHNICAL INNOVATIONS
ALTERNATIVE FUELS
The future of carbon-neutral fuels for heavy-duty machines
Decarbonization of commercial vehicles
and off-highway machines is rapidly
becoming a hot-button topic among
regulators in the EU, Asia and North
America. In addition to cracking down
on emissions of light vehicles, various
government agencies are now looking
to reduce the tailpipe emissions from all
manner of industrial equipment.
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering attended
an expert panel at the 2023 SAE
COMVEC conference that covered renewable
and low-carbon fuels as well as
usage of hydrogen. The panel consisted
of SMEs and engineers from various
OEMs such as the Traton Group company
MAN, Aramco and Ballard. They
discussed the various ways in which
these industries can reduce or even
eliminate emissions from their machines
while also discussing the economic feasibility
of doing so.
Hydrogen was one of the main topics
of discussion, including the need to lower
the overall cost of hydrogen production.
" When we talk about cost of energy in
the future, we're already paying for this
today, " said Eric Guter, Vice President,
Hydrogen for Mobility at Air Products.
" When we look at fossil fuels in terms of
their overall cost to the environment, the
effects of climate change and other aspects
of combusting fossil fuels, we're
already paying for it. The price of hydrogen
today is probably cheaper in the long
run than what we're currently paying. "
The panel also addressed what industries
are most likely to adopt hydrogen as
a fuel first. " The answer to that question
From left: Jim McCarthy (Eaton), Andreas Broda (MAN), Young Suk Jo (AMOGY),
Michael Traver (Aramco), Eric Guter (Air Products) and Mircea Gradu (Ballard)
served as panelists at the 2023
SAE COMVEC conference.
lies in who has the best business case for
H2
, " said Andreas Broda, head of fuelbased
propulsion systems for MAN.
" Some of these industries need H2
in order
to decarbonize because for one reason
or another, there's no alternative. That
is where we're seeing the most demand
from the market for this technology and
why the adoption is likely to come from
highly regulated countries first.
" We also see there are specific business
cases in the market, " Broda continued.
" Industries such as mining,
where the load factor is very high, are
the most likely candidates for hydrogen
or other sustainable fuels where pure
electrification just isn't practical at this
time. We expect to see a large amount
of growth in the heavy-duty industries
for hydrogen and other sustainable
fuels such as synthetic fuel in around
five years' time. "
The future use case for the diesel
combustion engine was another discussion
point for the panel. " I certainly
think it still has a future, " said Michael
Traver, senior engineer for Aramco
Research Center-Detroit. " The scale of
many of these machines essentially requires
a powertrain that burns hydrocarbon
fuel. It may not be long lived in
passenger cars, but the heavier the
duty is required the more likely it is that
a combustion powertrain is needed. "
Mircea Gradu, chief engineering officer
of Ballard Power Systems, outlined
the scalability of fuel cells as a carbonfree
power source for machines that
MAN Energy
Solutions
announced in
October that
it will jointly
develop engine
concepts for
hydrogen-fueled
medium-speed
engines in the
maritime sector.
12 December 2023
would not require combustion engines.
" The top priority when designing any
fuel cell is safety, " he said. " Everything
after that is determined by the customer
requirements. There are also a large
set of requirements emerging in the
on-highway commercial vehicle space,
such as crashworthiness, fueling and
other challenges.
" Fuel cells have a lot of potential in
this space, " he continued, " but we need
to ensure that we are meeting these various
challenges from our customers for
them to make sense from a business
standpoint. Each use case is going to
have unique needs, but if we can't meet
those while also making them [the cells]
make sense on the financial ledger as
well, adoption is going to be slow regardless
of regulatory pressures. "
Matt Wolfe
TRUCK & OFF-HIGHWAY ENGINEERING
FROM TOP: SAE MEDIA; MAN
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023

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