Automotive Engineering - February 2023 - 17

COVER STORY
The three most common hydrogen types by source, denoted in colors.
cell Class-8 semitractors in haulage operations. Fuel-cell power is
beginning to appear in medium-duty truck chassis, buses (where
China leads) and on up the GVW scale to huge mining machines,
railway locomotives and ships. In the light-duty pickup segment,
battery-electric has thus far been the clean-propulsion choice.
However, engineers working on those programs at Ford, GM, and
Rivian have told SAE Media that their trucks' all-season range as a
function of payload and towing has fallen frustratingly short of ICengine
expectations.
Ford CEO Jim Farley spoke pragmatically about EV limitations -
and hydrogen's benefits - during last fall's media intro of the 2023
F-250 Super Duty trucks. " If you're pulling 10,000-plus pounds, an
electric truck is not the right solution, " he asserted. " And 95 percent
of our [Super Duty] customers tow more than 10,000 pounds. This is
a really important segment for our country and it will probably go
hydrogen fuel cell before it goes pure electric, " Farley said.
Perhaps not coincidentally, at January's CES 2023, Patrick Koller,
CEO of hydrogen storage tank supplier Forvia, told Reuters that he
expects a fuel-cell pickup to be launched in the U.S. by 2025. It's
worth noting that a 10,000-lb. (4536-kg) max towing rating also is
available in the light-duty F-150 Lightning equipped with the 131-kWh
extended-range battery - a $20,000 option.
Highlighting the challenge of electrifying the largest vehicles,
propulsion systems and power generators, Dr. Gill Pratt, CEO of the
Toyota Research Institute, noted that a typical battery-electric
Class-8 truck will need an average of 1 megawatt of power to
charge the 1-megawatt battery that powers the truck. " It's also going
to take an hour to charge, " Pratt explained. " At a typical truck
stop, for example, for every existing diesel fuel pump that can fill a
truck's tanks in six minutes, you would need 10 chargers operating
at the same time. So, that's 10 megawatts of power you need to
replace one diesel pump. It's just not going to happen. That's why
hydrogen is such a big focus of our attention. "
AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERING
Last year, Toyota and partner Kenworth, using a
fleet of Kenworth T680 semitractors powered by
Toyota hydrogen fuel cells, demonstrated vehicle
range, payload and fueling times that equaled those of
comparable diesel-engined rigs in normal haulage operations.
The project was supported by Toyota,
PACCAR and Shell, and funded with a $41 million
grant awarded by the California Air Resources Board.
Demand, development, investment
Google any combination of " hydrogen, fuel cells, vehicles,
automakers, suppliers, and markets " and it
yields screens full of news on investments, partnerships
and joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions,
vehicles, technologies, hydrogen generation, facility
expansions and research. " Momentum in terms of
investment and development is super strong, and it's
increasing, " observed Dr. Byron McCormick, former
executive director of GM's global fuel-cell program.
McCormick is revered at Los Alamos National
Laboratory, where as a scientist in the early 1970s he
launched the lab's fuel-cell R&D for vehicles. His seminal
work at LANL and GM led to breakthroughs in
cathode performance, specific power, cold-weather
operability and overall stack durability that benefit
industry engineers today.
A recent report by Boston-based BCC Research forecasts
the global market for hydrogen fuel cells for all
applications to grow from $7.5 billion in 2022 to $19.5
billion by 2027, at a compound annual growth rate
(CAGR) of 21% during the period. While development
activities are at a higher pace among commercial-vehicle
February 2023 17
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Automotive Engineering - February 2023

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