WHO IS WINNING OVER THE TRUCKING INDUSTRY – BEVS OR FCEVS
Hydrogen Fuel Cell Pack
credits: auto.economics.com
Battery Cell Pack
credits: indiamart.com
The current mobility revolution is all about Battery based Electric Vehicles. Battery technology is also being seen as the answer to long-haul trucking, by many, however, the trucking industry is likely to approach its green goals differently. Hydrogen (H2) based Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles are emerging as the alternative technology in the long-haul space. However, H2 is yet to make its mark in the automotive industry.
Batteries are cheaper and are seen as an ideal solution for short as well as medium range applications. However, the sheer space they consume and weight of batteries do not provide a promising answer for heavy duty and long-haul transport solutions. Hydrogen fuel cells on the other hand are lighter, work on refill model and provide the closest answer to zero emissions.
Will there be one winner amongst these two technologies or will it be a combined solution – only time, advancements, prototypes, government policy and investing acumen will tell.
credits:media.daimlertruck.com
Daimler’s prototype Gen H2 has been tested and is powered by fuel cells created by cellcentric – a JV between Daimler and Volvo. The JV between hitherto rivals, aims to accelerate the use of fuel cells and to become a leading global manufacturer of fuel-cell systems. Daimler also has an MoU with BP for building and operating up to 25 refuelling stations of green hydrogen. Daimler Trucks plans to mass produce these fuel cell trucks after 2025. The prototype has 2 e-motors with 230 kW continuous power each and the fuel cells each produce 150 kW. Interestingly, it also has 70 kWh high-voltage battery to support up to 400 kW during acceleration process.
With increasing regulatory pressures, especially from EU, European truck makers want to get off fossil fuels and eliminate carbon emissions
Volkswagen owned Scania too has made an about turn of sorts from its previous claims of going purely the battery way by announcing development of 20 fuel cell trucks in collaboration with Cummins. It wants to put battery + fuel cell combination trucks on roads in Belgium, Netherlands and Germany as early as 2025.
A look at what’s working & what’s not for Batteries Vs H2 Fuel Cells
- Grid Dependency: Batteries will face grid limitations sooner than later and hence will require heavy investments for grid upgradations and maintenance. Fuel-cell electrification offers more capital-efficient decarbonisation without grid obligations and natural gas pipelines can also be used for H2 transportation.
- Round-trip efficiency: However, the round-trip efficiency of using renewable energy to power FCEVs is just 30% i.e., for every 100kW of power, only 30kW is actually used on road whereas the same efficiency for BEVs is 77% .
- Recharge time: Even with fast and slow charging stations, higher charging time is required for batteries and too many vehicles fast charging at the same time will likely overload the grid. Long-haul all-electric models are still years away since the range of today’s batteries would require charging stops every 4 to 5 hours. H2 tanks on the other hand follow refilling similar to the current gas refill model and require much lesser time to refuel and get going.
- Grey or Green: Currently grey hydrogen is produced from fossil fuels and green hydrogen is very expensive. The demand for green hydrogen from European industry itself exceeds the total production capacity planned by the EU by 2030. Batteries on the other hand have no such restrictions and are subject to production based on demand – which in turn is dependent on infrastructure creation for both these technologies.
- Range & Weight: An increase in range and power requirement of BEVs automatically means a larger number of batteries that result in increased weight thus reducing payload while in the case of FCEVs a range increase requires addition of lighter weight H2 tanks.
- Raw materials: Exotic raw materials in batteries are likely to face scarcity as well as regulatory pressures and the reuse / recycle case for batteries is not very strong. As such the price of batteries is likely to drop to an optimal level and could rise with growing demand owing to cell chemistry dependent on such raw materials. As regards hydrogen-based fuel cells platinum as a catalyst in hydrogen fuel cells is far more recyclable, retrievable and reusable. A recent breakthrough by Indian scientists at ARCI is a platinum based electrocatalyst that is claimed to have comparable performance to other electrocatalysts in fuel cells however, while offering more durability through superior corrosion resistance.
- Energy storage capacity: From an energy storage perspective, 1kg of lithium battery can store only 0.15-0.25 kWh of electricity while 1kg of hydrogen contains 39.6 kWh.
- Ease of Implementation: Battery technology has already been adopted by the automotive sector and it only requires adaptation for the trucking industry – which in cases such as Daimler’s Freightliner eM2 and eCascadia are already testing on the roads and gathering diagnostics and feedback. A robust high-performance charging infrastructure and political push can set the ball rolling. Whereas, as per the Fraunhofer Study, even the expected production of green hydrogen is likely to be consumed by industries such as steel and others rather than becoming available to fuel the transport sector.
Looking into the Crystal Ball
Fuel-cell and battery-powered vehicles are both electric, sharing the same motors and many other components. The key difference is batteries store electricity and fuel cells make it onboard as needed, in an electrochemical process that extracts electrons from hydrogen forced through fuel-cell membranes. The downside of hydrogen is that it is sourced primarily from natural gas and hence making it creates carbon emissions and it is also argued that charging batteries with electricity is more efficient than to first make hydrogen that in turn has to be reverted into electric power for propulsion. Today the pipeline for green hydrogen projects is on track for a halving of electrolyser cost before 2030. This, combined with large projects located where the best renewable resources are, can lead to competitive green hydrogen to be available at scale in the next 5-10 years.
FCEVs are favoured for use in buses, trucks and trains & hydrogen airplanes are already under development and projected to be in mass production by 2035. They are lighter in weight, can eventually access free and unlimited fuel source and the only by-products are water and vapour.
However, as of now, BEVs are cheaper than FCEVs sheerly due to their technological advancement, price and infrastructure availability.
Globally, from total 25000 BEVs a decade ago to 5.6 million BEVs today, battery powered EVs are estimated to grow to 200 million by 2030. There are only about 100,000 total FCEVs in the world today – about 1% of all EVs. However, their numbers could rise, just like BEVs did over the last decade.
Toyota and Hyundai have already developed fuel cells that are ready for mass production.
Speaking on how to transition to FCEVs, Kamal Bali, President and CEO of Volvo India puts it, “The overall approach is the same for all countries: There needs to be greater cooperation between public and private stakeholders to develop the necessary technology and infrastructure, which calls for united action from policymakers and governments around the world in helping make hydrogen fuel-cell technology a success.”
Conclusion
According to Craig Knight, CEO of Hyzon Motors, while producing a few battery-fuelled trucks is easier than engineering an optimal hydrogen fuel cell truck, when the numbers increase, implementation and the supply chain of hydrogen technology will be like a walk in the park – far easier than choosing battery technology.
It seems like a wait and watch at this point in time!
For more information on this subject, especially in the Indian context write to me at sudhir.nerurkar@quanzen.com
