Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - August 2024 - 10

America's first high-volume, fast-fill H2
FOR HD TRUCKS
station
Hyundai XCIENT Class 8 trucks at the nation's first fast-fill commercial
truck stop. A dedicated fleet of trucks moving Port of Oakland cargo will keep
the station, operated under FirstElement's True Zero retail brand, busy.
FirstElement's station at the Port of Oakland can put 100 kg of hydrogen in up to
200 trucks a day in less than 10 minutes each.
by Chris Clonts
I
t may be missing the food and hospitality trappings
of what most would consider a proper " truck stop, "
but the nation's first high-volume, rapid-fill hydrogen
truck refueling station is a giant leap toward a future
in which H2
is the natural and sustainable fuel for the
nation's heavy-haul overland transportation needs.
FirstElement Fuel recently opened the location under
its True Zero brand at the Port of Oakland, where a
dedicated fleet of 30 Class 8 Hyundai XCIENT hydrogen-powered
trucks will stay fueled as they operate
virtually 24/7 moving containers and cargo around
Alameda County. The station, which stores liquid H2
more of the stations in California, and that those stations would include
at least four HD truck fueling positions. " This is a major milestone in
getting rid of the 'chicken-or-egg' hurdle for heavy-duty trucking with
hydrogen, " he said.
Filling vehicles with hydrogen is a far more complex proposition
than with gasoline or diesel or even BEV charging. While early
FirstElement stations stored gaseous hydrogen, the Port of Oakland
station stores liquid hydrogen at -253 degrees Celsius (-423 deg F).
That's beneficial because liquid hydrogen is 10 times denser than the
gas version, meaning fewer resupply deliveries, smaller station footprints
and higher volumes of service.
on
site, has two HD truck fueling positions and four medium-
or light-duty positions. Among the station's previously
unheard-of numbers:
* 18,000 kg (39,700 lb) per day of pumping capacity.
* Can simultaneously support back-to-back fast fills
(less than 10 minutes) of up to 100 kg (220 lb).
* Total throughput can be up to 200 trucks per day.
Those numbers represent a massive jump compared
to FirstElement's previous generation fueling stations,
which also store liquid hydrogen but only have a capacity
of 1,600 kg (3,525 lb)/day. The first stations
only had one dispenser, were supplied by gaseous hydrogen
and had a limit of just 200 kg (440 lb)/day.
Nikola has also committed to using the station for
an undisclosed volume of trucks.
Shane Stephens, FirstElement's founder and chief
development officer, said the company plans to build 15
10 August 2024
Cryopumps are key
The liquid hydrogen still must be converted into a gas, though, to go
into today's truck fuel tanks. FirstElement chief technical officer
Ghassan Sleiman said that is where cryopumps enter the picture.
They achieve high-pressure or subcooled liquid hydrogen. Then, using
FirstElement patented tech, high-pressure storage, heat exchangers
and flow management are used to achieve high state-of-charge
(SOC) fills at pressures of H70, H35 or as sub-cooled liquid.
Sleiman said the old technology used multiple valves, whereas a
new, two-stage cryopump system developed with Bosch Rexroth,
uses variable servomotors that don't result in throttling losses, when
efficiency is reduced in the work to move a gas past valves. Another
Bosch breakthrough is a newly developed compression cylinder that
can compress up to 600 kg (1,320 lb) of liquid hydrogen per hour.
The new FirstElement/Bosch Rexroth cryopump, which can deliver
2,400 kg (5,290 lb)/hour, or continuous refueling at four pumps delivering
TRUCK & OFF-HIGHWAY ENGINEERING
KARL NIELSEN
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - August 2024

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