‘Record run’ | Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz green hydrogen truck drives over 1,000km on a single tank

Liquid H2-powered fuel cell journey enabled by ‘well insulated tanks’ that prevent warming, claims German auto firm

Daimler's GenH2 hydrogen truck.
Daimler's GenH2 hydrogen truck.Photo: Daimler

Mercedes-Benz-owned truck-maker Daimler has completed a test run of its liquid hydrogen fuel cell (FCEV) truck in Germany, driving the vehicle over 1,000km on a single tank of green hydrogen — touted by the German firm as a “record run”.

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Daimler’s fully-loaded Mercedes-Benz GenH2 truck, with a combined gross weight of 40 tonnes, set off from Mercedes’ customer centre in Woerth-am-Rhein on Monday afternoon, arriving at the Ministergarten green space near Germany’s federal government offices in Berlin on Tuesday morning, having travelled 1,047km without refuelling.

The distance beats that of Hyzon Motors’ liquid hydrogen FCEV truck test, which this month travelled 870km in the US without refuelling, but is still some way behind the official world record distance travelled by a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle on a single fill, which stands at 1,360km for a Toyota Mirai passenger vehicle in 2021.

However, while the Hyzon truck carried out eight deliveries as part of the commercial trial, Daimler made no mention of any commercial activity fulfilled as part of its test run.

Green hydrogen for the GenH2’s liquid H2 fuel cell was supplied by Air Products, made with biomethane certified as renewable with guarantees of origin.

The initial fuelling of the truck’s tanks took place at Daimler’s cryogenic filling station at its development centre in Woerth, in the Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany, with Daimler noting that noting that it preferred liquid hydrogen to gaseous due to its greater energy density.

However liquid hydrogen is notoriously difficult to store and transport as it must be kept at temperatures below minus 253°C. If it rises above this level it will turn to H2 gas, expanding and increasing the pressure inside the tank. This could lead to explosions unless the gas is vented into the atmosphere — where it acts as an indirect greenhouse gas — or reliquefied, a far more expensive and complex option.

But Daimler claimed that its 40kg fuel tanks, mounted on the truck’s external chassis, delivered “particularly good insulation”, meaning that the “hydrogen can be kept at temperature for a sufficiently long time without active cooling”.

The company said that the test run vindicated its double-strategy of pursuing both hydrogen FCEV and battery-electric powertrains for its heavy-duty vehicles.

“To decarbonise transport, we need both battery-electric and hydrogen-powered drive technologies,” said Andreas Gorbach, board member of Daimler Truck, who drove the truck over the finishing line in the Ministergarten on Tuesday. “The sweet spot for fuel cell trucks lies in flexible and demanding long-haul transportation tasks.

"By cracking the 1,000-km mark with one fill, we have now impressively demonstrated [that] hydrogen in trucks is anything but hot air, and we are making very good progress on the road to series production.”

He added: “At the same time, our record run today is a reminder that decarbonizing transportation requires two other factors in addition to the right drive technologies: a green energy infrastructure and competitive costs compared to conventional vehicles.”

Hydrogen Insight reached out to Daimler to ask about the specifics of the trial, but had not received a response at the time of publication.
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Published 27 September 2023, 15:12Updated 27 September 2023, 15:12