Matt Weig, Fuel Cell Engine Product Development Manager

As we launch the Nuvera® E-45 fuel cell engine for medium- and heavy-duty vehicle applications, we wanted to look back at how we arrived at this moment. Nuvera has been at the forefront of the fuel cell industry for over 20 years. Throughout that time, we have always believed that hydrogen represents the future of energy for mobility, and we have worked hard to develop unique technology that makes the use of hydrogen make financial and environmental sense for commercial operations. As governments around the world begin restricting the use of internal combustion engines and diesel fuel, it’s exciting to see how quickly the use of hydrogen fuel cells for zero-emission transportation has come to the forefront of consideration by fleet operators of all kinds.

This past November, the Fuel Cell Seminar and Energy Exposition (FCS&EE) was back in full swing with a sense of excitement for the state of the industry. The Long Beach Convention Center was an excellent venue for showcasing the uses of fuel cells in some of the most demanding industrial and commercial applications, including several major projects at the San Pedro Bay Ports involving the replacement of diesel equipment with hydrogen fuel cells. 

This year, there was a major shift in the tenor of the event, with near-unanimous agreement regarding the viability of fuel cell electric vehicles across the spectrum of classes and uses. Numerous recent strides in the industry allowed participants to focus on how—and not if—fuel cells will become a foundational part of our clean energy future.

Activity around new energy options to power equipment at ports is accelerating, and these first steps and use cases are showing what’s possible using hydrogen at scale.

An international workshop on the status of hydrogen and fuel cells for ports and maritime applications was held in San Francisco in September 2019. H2@Ports was convened by the U.S. Department of Energy Fuel Cell Technologies Office (FCTO), in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration and the European Commission Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking.

Unprecedented global demand for clean transportation systems is putting a spotlight on the fuel cell industry. It’s becoming clear that the possibilities for achieving widespread fuel cell vehicle are limitless. This is true for virtually every mode of transportation – commercial, industrial, light-duty – including non-road sectors such as marine, aviation and rail. As the fuel cell industry transforms and expands, it is positively impacting everything from environmental progress and sustainability to the well-being of communities to the bottom line of logistics companies, transit agencies and port operations.

In other words, there is a lot to celebrate! And it just so happens that now is the perfect time.

Eleven cities in Germany are among the most recent to join Paris, Mexico City, Madrid and Athens to ban diesel engine vehicles. In the US, cities and states are setting ambitious goals to fight global warming. EU countries have agreed to cut truck and bus CO₂ emissions 30% by 2030. Japan, Korea and China have all adopted aggressive regulatory policies for combustion engines.

In every sector, OEMs are electrifying vehicle powertrains. To achieve commercial success and to comply with expanding regulatory requirements, OEMs must offer customers zero-emission options that perform as well as – or better than – today’s vehicles do, and be as practical to own and operate.

The role that hydrogen and fuel cells are playing in transforming the transportation sector was a major theme at several international gatherings in Vancouver, British Columbia in recent weeks. Vehicle OEMs, fuel cell suppliers, on- and off-road fleet operators and others gathered on May 22-24, 2019 for The Impulse Summit for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells, also known as f-cell + HFC.  This well-known conference and trade fair features speakers from around the world and showcases the latest developments in the fuel cell industry through technical panels, keynote addresses, product exhibitions and workshops.

At this year’s f-cell + HFC event in Canada, Nuvera co-hosted a workshop highlighting the use of fuel cells for seaports and shipping. As we have discussed in previous blogs, ports around the world are concentrated sources of greenhouse gas emissions and criteria pollutants. Not surprisingly, policy-makers, community and environmental groups, as well as port authorities themselves, are recognizing that ports can play a significant role in improving local air quality by reducing their use of diesel fuel – and by making their operations more efficient and less costly through equipment electrification.

Hydrogen fuel cells are coming into their own as one of the most disruptive transportation technologies emerging today.  This month, we sit down with Nuvera CEO Lucien Robroek to discuss Nuvera, the fast-growing fuel cell industry and its impact on every form of mobility.

The forthcoming workshop at the Impulse Summit for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells in Vancouver on hydrogen and fuel cells in port applications provides an opportunity to follow up on last month’s blog post by taking a deeper dive into port operations and the high-intensity equipment required at them. We identify limitations of battery technology by examining the duty cycles of port equipment, and how fuel cells can be an enabler for vehicle electrification.

Ports are vital components of US infrastructure and are some of the biggest drivers for the economy. They create jobs, provide critical entry points for goods used throughout the country, and enable the export of products around the world.

Port equipment is also the source of significant local air pollution and greenhouse gases (GHGs), compounded by emissions from heavy-duty trucks that travel within and beyond the port boundaries. In recognition of this, the International Maritime Organization recently established a goal of reducing GHG emissions from the shipping sector globally by 50 percent by 2050 from the 2008 level.[i]

It’s the simplest chemical element. It can store and deliver usable energy. With just one proton and one electron, hydrogen comprises about 90 percent of the universe.

So why does this matter to us? We all need electricity, ideally an unlimited supply of electricity wherever we are, on demand. Electricity can be made from diverse feed stocks like fossil fuels, nuclear and renewable sources. It is used primarily for stationary applications such as electric power distributed through the grid to homes, businesses, factories, and other industrial facilities. But what about mobility and the needs of the transportation industry?

In 2016, public transit in the U.S. provided almost 11 billion passenger trips via buses, light and heavy rail, commuter trains, and other transportation modes. Almost half of those trips were on buses traveling on more than 230,000 miles of streets and roads. Today, 42 percent of these buses are diesel-powered.[i]

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that diesel fuel consumption accounted for 24 percent of the total CO₂ emissions from the U.S. transportation sector in 2017.[i] Overall, transportation accounts for 25 percent of global energy consumption, with the majority of that powered by carbon-based fuels.[ii] In California, transportation is responsible for half of the state’s greenhouse gases and 80 percent of its smog-forming NOx emissions.[iii]