Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - August 2024 - 11

INFRASTRUCTURE FEATURE
Ghassan Sleiman, FirstElement's
chief technical officer, demonstrates
the simplicity and speed of getting
hydrogen into a truck's tanks. A 100-kg
fill can be accomplished in about 10
minutes thanks to advances in liquidto-gas
conversion technology.
600 kg/hour. The first stage is being tested at FirstElement's R&D facility
in Livermore, California. The second stage is being manufactured.
David Hull, Bosch Rexroth regional vice president, said the new
cryopump tech has eluded the industry for a long time. " We have
been talking about hydrogen compression for 25 years, " he said. He
lauded FirstElement, saying it " has simply lived the problems and
learned the lessons. They've iterated and iterated. "
Hull also said that it's an inflection point for hydrogen because of,
among other reasons, the fact that the natural gas supply " has been
weaponized globally. "
can help big-polluting ports
Sleiman said the company is far ahead of the competition because of
its solid plan and reputation. " We got liquid hydrogen permitted in
California where others could not, " he said, adding that future truck
locations would see larger footprints than the Port of Oakland station.
The station was developed under the NorCal Zero project with Hyundai
and funding from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the
California Energy Commission. It's an important location for carbon emissions
reduction because ports on each coast are consistently some of the
heaviest polluters in their regions due to the constant activity of diesel
trucks. Stephens said local-haul trucks tend to be older, less-maintained
and don't operate at peak efficiency due to slower local traffic. All of that
contributes to greater emissions than their over-the-road counterparts.
Sleiman said that feedback from GET Freight-managed drivers of
the Hyundai trucks has been impressive. " Our drivers don't want to
go back to diesel, " he said. " The hydrogen trucks are quiet and
there's less vibration. " The lack of noise is instantly noticeable as one
of the trucks pulls up or accelerates away.
If the cost of making hydrogen can come down and the ease of
H2
TRUCK & OFF-HIGHWAY ENGINEERING
David Hull, regional
vice president for Bosch
Rexroth, speaks to
media at FirstElement's
Livermore R&D site.
He said new cryopump
technology created by
Bosch, working with
FirstElement, means
delivery is no longer an
issue for hydrogen. " Now
we can see the markets
driving demand without
obstacles, " he said.
making it increased, advocates say it would be a far superior
solution for heavy-duty trucking than batteryelectric
semis such as those produced by Tesla. That's
because the enormous-capacity batteries needed for a
semi are extremely heavy and can take up to multiple
hours to recharge. Hydrogen trucks can be filled in about
the same amount of time it takes to fill a diesel truck.
FirstElement's Ghassan said the station equipment,
both existing and the new cryopump technology, is engineered
to be largely maintenance-free. " We don't
August 2024 11
FROM TOP: KARL NIELSEN; SAE/CHRIS CLONTS
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - August 2024

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