HOW TO BOOST TRUCKS ON HYDROGEN:

Quick Implementation of a hydrogen-fuelled road

transport system

Elena Ezquerra Silva

Luis Alberto Sialer Filinich
Mauricio Alonso Gómez Amaya

“Universidad de Ingeniería y
Tecnología-UTEC”

August-2018
 HOW TO BOOST TRUCKS ON HYDROGEN:
Quick Implementation of a hydrogen-fuelled road transport system

To create our proposal, we established solutions around one main question: How would we
implement a hydrogen-fuelled road transport system in as little time as possible? To answer this
question we first looked at the main issues that we had to address:

● Hydrogen Infrastructure:

Unlike the electric grid systems present in most developed countries, hydrogen does not have
the infrastructure necessary to support it as a practical way to fuel trucks. Grand scale
constructions projects to establish a “Hydrogen Pipe Network” would take too long and lots of
resources. On top of that, hydrogen transportation is complex and expensive. This is the reason
why we believe having fueling stations where hydrogen is produced on-site is the most practical
and quickest way of introducing hydrogen as a fuel for trucks. We then need to focus on how will
the hydrogen be produced and how to implement the system in a way that does not take a long
period of time. In the following lines, we establish our proposed solutions to this problems.

○ Points of ​hydrogen production​:

The hydrogen would be produced on-site at each station. The production process
will consist of the electrolysis of water powered by a renewable energy source
(see attached file). The electricity required will be obtained from the electric grid,
there must be a contract between the company operator of the hydrogen
production plant and a generator company that produces the electricity. Each
station will count with the following components:

● Hydrogen electrolysis system

● Hydrogen storage unit
● Water storage unit

On-site generation presents a key advantage since hydrogen transportation at

high pressures in specialized trucks involves much greater complexity and costs.
Also, unless the distribution of the gas is carried out by hydrogen-fueled trucks,
this would go against our overall goal of having zero emissions. This system not
only solves the production problem but the distribution one as well.

The water necessary to produce enough hydrogen at each fueling station to

satisfy demand will be provided by the most convenient source depending on the
location of the station. Stations near coasts could be fitted with desalination
equipment to take advantage of the seas. If stations are connected to
underground water lines they could draw from there. The proximity to water
treatment plants also signifies a big opportunity. We could take wastewater and
repurpose it as a source of clean fuel rather than dump it into the oceans. By
implementing small-scale water treatment equipment in industries that produce
big amounts of wastewater we could satisfy the demand of the stations nearby.
Water is much easier to transport and store. Ideally, water would be transported
by hydrogen-fueled trucks to different stations where it can be stored in tanks.
 ○ Implementation of fueling stations:

Rather than having to build a network of hydrogen fueling stations from the
ground up, our plan is to develop a partnership with companies which own gas
stations in a given country. By locating which gas stations represent key fueling
points in trucking routes, the required components could then be adapted to the
already infrastructure. This is a key factor in introducing this new technology to
the transport system.

● Accessibility to hydrogen-fueled vehicles:

○ Electric trucks:

Hydrogen-fuelled electric trucks available on the market are still more expensive
than diesel-fuelled ones, approximately 200% more. And there are still very few
companies that take upon production of such vehicles. For this reason, the first
barrier that has to be overcome is the high price of this technology. In a short
term this vehicles can be introduced to the market if the governments establish
importation policies, and subsidies or grants for the acquisition of the electric cars
feeded by hydrogen. That way the government should be the agent responsible
for financially supporting the truck owners. But in the long term, the production
cost of this truck should be pretty much less, and the only way of achieving it is
promoting the research and the development of new technologies.
 ○ Fuel-cell technology

Concerning to the technology used inside of an electric truck, we consider that

the most promising technology for converting hydrogen into electrical current is
by PEM fuel cells. However more research has to be done so that the fabrication
costs gets reduced. This will be achieved, again, by promoting the research and
innovation on the field.

There must be a scientific committee in cooperation with a regulatory body that

works in the way of how the hydrogen fuel cells can increase its efficiency. It is
known that the hydrogen fuel cells are too expensive because of the materials
needed for the fabrication of them (specially for the platinum used for the
electrodes assemblies). The development of new investigations and new
technologies programme is to support the broad market and to introduce these
new technologies as more competitive alternative to the conventional combustion
engines.

Another goal of this committee must be the improvement of fuel cell

manufacturing. To date, most fuel cells are assembled by hand and this takes a
heavy toll on the cost. New manufacturing processes must be developed that
allow to drastically reduce cost while increasing the production volume.

The key technical aspect of our proposal is the design and construction of a hydrogen fueling
station that generates its own supply and that is cheap both to construct and install. To
summarise, we aim to concentrate time and resources into five key objectives:

1. The design and construction of affordable, easy-to-implement hydrogen fueling stations.

2. The design and implementation of small-scale water treatment equipment. .
3. The design of a manufacturing process that allows higher production volume at a lower
cost.
4. The realization of the necessary deals and partnerships to carry out the ideas previously
discussed.
5. The creation of a hydrogen research centred organization whose prime focus is to
accelerate and manage the implementation of the above-mentioned objectives.