December 21, 2021
Last week the first hydrogen-powered Peugeot has rolled off the production lines: the e-Expert Hydrogen van. The latter is the peer of the Opel Vivaro-e and the Citroën Jumpy on hydrogen light vans that get fuel cells from Symbio, the joint venture between Faurecia and Michelin. The vehicles combine a fuel cell and a battery […]
December 16, 2021
Paris zero-emission taxi provider Hype, currently running a fleet of more than a hundred H2-powered cabs, has raised another €20 million with French hydrogen pioneers HRS and McPhy to expand that fleet to 10 000 by 2024. Ready for the Olympics in the French capital, the latter includes 20 hydrogen filling stations in the Ile-de […]
December 15, 2021
The EU Commission has presented a four-pillar Action Plan for a cleaner, greener, and smarter mobility on the cross-border transport network through Europe and its nine major corridors. That means shifting more passengers and freight to rail and inland waterways, the roll-out of charging points every 60 km along highways, hydrogen filling stations at 150 […]
December 15, 2021
On a podium floor flooded with EVs, Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda addressed the media on Tuesday to outline the new EV plans of his company. The Japanese car manufacturer is accelerating its efforts. A boosted total investment of 8 trillion yen (€31 billion) is foreseen to get 30 EV models in the overall line-up by […]
December 08, 2021
The inland container barge FPS Maas is the first of the fleet to start sailing between Rotterdam and Antwerp on hydrogen-powered fuel cells. Dutch shipping company Future Proof Sailing just signed a long-term agreement with AirLiquide to supply green hydrogen in specially designed multi-modal hydrogen storage containers on deck. As a zero-emission vessel owner, FPS […]
December 03, 2021
Toyota’s idea of our electric future is not just about battery-electric cars. That was the bottom line of the Kenshiki (translated as ‘Insight’) forum held in Brussels on Thursday. The brand showcased the new production model Corolla Cross Hybrid, some European premieres, and further outlined its path toward carbon-neutrality in Europe by 2035. Alongside the […]
November 19, 2021
On Friday, 5 November, Toyota and app-based taxi service DRIVR have launched more than 100 hydrogen cabs on the road in Copenhagen. The Danish government no longer admits Co2-emitting taxis from 2025, and by 2030, all new cabs must be zero-emission vehicles. The taxi industry in Denmark is seen as a key driver of the […]
November 17, 2021
While visiting the industrial start-up Genvia on Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that the government’s investment in hydrogen will benefit from an additional €1,9 billion, as part of the investment plan ‘France 2030‘. The President wants to fight for the country’s industrial reconquest and the climate battle at the same time. “There’s no fatality. […]
November 17, 2021
Kairos@C, the Antwerp project to set up an infrastructure to capture CO2 and push it in liquid form through pipelines into storage, is one of the seven large-scale selected projects to be subsidized by the European Innovation Fund (EIF). The project gets part of the €1,1 billion subsidies the European Commission has available. Kairos@C is […]
November 16, 2021
At the Salon des Maires et des Collectivités Locales, the ‘Mayor’s salon’ in Paris, Hyvia, the joint venture between Renault and Plug Power is showing these days its new 15-passenger city bus on hydrogen. The mini-bus based on the Renault Master has a 30 kW fuel cell, a 33 kW battery, and a 4,5 kg […]
November 16, 2021
Toyota Vice-President Shigeru Hayakawa takes up the cudgels for hybrid cars. According to Toyota, hybrid cars – HEV and PHEV – will still play a crucial role in reducing emissions in worldwide transport. Hayakawa is, therefore, pointing at South-East Asia and Africa, where he sees a vital role for hybrids. He states that countries with […]
November 10, 2021
Daimler Truck and French oil giant TotalEnergies have signed an agreement to jointly kick start the rollout of hydrogen infrastructure and heavy-duty trucks in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, and France. Daimler wants its hydrogen trucks deployed fully on the road at customers by 2025, and TotalEnergies has the ambition by 2030 to operate directly […]
November 10, 2021
EDUCAM, a sectorial organization for the training of the workforce in the automotive branch, had yesterday opened its first training facility for future garages repairing hydrogen cars. The center, located in Lokeren, wants to prepare professionals for this new challenge that it believes will arrive alongside the massive switch to battery-electric cars. Highly explosive The […]
November 08, 2021
Antwerp Port and Zeebrugge Port will set up a hydrogen import logistic chain with Chile. Belgium’s major ports who decided earlier this year to merge into Port Antwerp-Bruges signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for this in Glasgow. Belgium will also import green hydrogen from Oman and Namibia. At the COP26 in Glasgow, Belgian Federal […]
October 28, 2021
British-American start-up in hydrogen-powered aviation, ZeroAvia, has signed an agreement with Dutch aviation partners to realize a zero-emission one-hour flight route with a 19-seat airplane on hydrogen between London and The Hague Airport (RTHA) in Rotterdam. ZeroAvia and Royal Schiphol Group say they’re in advanced talks with airlines to exploit the new route. Targeted for […]
October 27, 2021
British global chemical company, Ineos, a specialist in producing ‘low-carbon’ hydrogen, is working on a hydrogen demonstration version of its Landrover Defender-clone, the Grenadier, for road testing by the end of 2022. The latter will most likely get a Hyundai Nexo fuel cell and will be co-engineered by automotive specialist AVL. First, the basic ICE-powered […]
October 13, 2021
Months away from the French elections, President Emmanuel Macron has unveiled his ‘France 2030’ plan. Grounds are laid to invest 30 billion euros in hydrogen, nuclear, electric cars, green airplanes, renewable energies, and even aerospace. The president wants France to “become a great innovation nation again.” To the energy sector, Macron has allocated a total […]
September 17, 2021
The British-Dutch oil and gas company, Shell, plans to construct a large production unit for biofuels at the Shell Energy and Park Rotterdam (the Netherlands), formerly known as the Pernis refinery. The Rotterdam plant will produce 820 000 tons of biofuels a year. “A facility of this size could produce enough renewable diesel to avoid […]
September 08, 2021
The Hyundai Motor Group has presented its ‘Hydrogen Vision 2040’. The strategic plan of the Korean company envisages offering a fuel cell version for all commercial vehicle models of the group by 2028. However, it will still take a few years before the costs drop to BEV level. Hyundai plans to introduce a next-generation fuel […]
September 07, 2021
After successful trials in Germany and Italy, French train company Alstom hopes to bring its hydrogen-powered Coradia iLint on its home rails. On Monday and for the first time in France, one of Alstom’s train cars has driven on a test site in Valenciennes. With its 800 to 1 000 km range, the hydrogen train […]
September 01, 2021
After a pilot of six weeks in the Antwerp harbor at two container terminals, the Hydrolog project shows the feasibility to operate forklifts and terminal tractors on hydrogen, WaterstofNet, and the Flanders Innovation cluster for Logistics (VIL) conclude. Getting the official licenses proved to be time-consuming and costly as legislation still has to follow. The […]
August 30, 2021
CMB Tech, the clean technology division of Belgian shipping company Company Maritime Belge (CMB), has converted a 37-ton Hitachi excavator to run on a mixture of hydrogen and diesel, avoiding up to 8 tons of CO2 emissions or 50% less in daily operations. For the client, the advantage is that the limited additional cost lets […]
August 25, 2021
German ‘historic’ combustion engine manufacturer Deutz AG has its first hydrogen combustion engine ready for the market, the company announced. The zero-emission six-cylinder TCG 7.8 H2 engine produces 200 kW (268 hp), runs very quietly, and “is likely to be used first in stationary equipment, generators, and rail transport,” the company says. The heritage of […]
August 24, 2021
The Brussels public transport company MIVB/STIB has its first hydrogen bus. The bus, presented on Monday, will be tested for two years to familiarise with the new technology and evaluate its performance. The vehicle will be leased from the manufacturer Van Hool, which will then, at the same time, benefit from the data that MIVB/STIB […]
August 19, 2021
On Wednesday, the Volvo Group was handed over its first carbon-free steel. The supplier is Swedish steel company SSAB Öxelund who uses Hydrogen Breakthrough Ironmaking Technology (HYBRIT) to replace coal and coke during production. SSAB’s goal is to decarbonize the steel industry and to commercialize green steel. They plan to have all their traditional furnaces […]
August 17, 2021
BMW announced it will be demoing the iX5 Hydrogen two years after introducing the BMW i Hydrogen NEXT concept car, ‘live’ at the IAA Mobility motor show in Munich, from September 7th to 12. Visitors will have the opportunity to “be driven along the Blue Lane connecting the main exhibition grounds with other exhibition venues […]
August 11, 2021
In Japan, the first passenger ferry for commercial use with two hydrogen diesel combustion engines has been officially launched on Tuesday. The ‘HydroBingo’ was developed by Belgian shipping company CMB’s tech daughter, CMB Tech, together with Japanese shipbuilding and shipping firm Tsuneishi in a 50/50 joint venture. It is a 19-tons ferry accommodating 80 passengers […]
August 06, 2021
The California Fuel Cell Partnership (CaFCP) envisions in a new report the possibility to roll out in the state a fleet of “70 000 heavy-duty class 8 fuel cell electric trucks (FCETs) supported by 200 heavy-duty truck stations by 2035”. The ultimate goal for California is 100% zero-emission trucks by 2045. With this zero-emission fleet […]
July 27, 2021
Italian-Swiss shipping giant Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) will study the next twelve months the feasibility of an oceangoing cruise ship on hydrogen as a zero-emission alternative. The study will be carried out together with Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri and Italian gas group Snam. The three companies formulated their intention to build the world’s first hydrogen-powered cruise […]
July 26, 2021
Hyundai will further expand its range of alternative propulsion systems in time. In addition to electric, hybrid, and plug-in hybrid models, the Korean manufacturer also believes in fuel cell propulsion, and that range is also going to grow with three extra models. Hyundai today offers the Nexo (SUV model) on Belgian soil, but with a […]
July 22, 2021
A new study by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) experts finds battery-electric cars already have a better greenhouse gas emissions record than conventionally powered vehicles. This is not only true in Europe but also in China, India, or the USA. Moreover, by 2030, this emissions advantage will further increase. The study was a […]
July 20, 2021
American fuel cell specialist Hyzon has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Australian Superior Pak for the delivery in 2022 of twenty refuse collection trucks. Superior Pack is designing and engineering mobile waste collection and compaction equipment and has already delivered over 3 000 compaction units for more than 50 municipalities in Australia and New […]
July 20, 2021
WaterstofNet (HydrogenNet), the driving force behind the Hydrogen Industry Cluster (Waterstof Industrie Cluster, WIC), of which the Korean car manufacturer Hyundai is a member, wants to be a forerunner using hydrogen for zero-emission mobility. Therefore, Hyundai Belux puts one of its hydrogen cars at WaterstofNet’s disposal for one year in the context of their cooperation. […]
July 14, 2021
Dutch dairy company FrieslandCampina has commissioned its first hydrogen-driven 50-ton milk truck on the roads in the Groningen region. Today, only there is enough hydrogen filling infrastructure to roll out H2-trucks, says FrieslandCampina. But it is looking to expand to the rest of the Netherlands too. FrieslandCampina is running a durability program called ‘Nourishing a […]
July 07, 2021
Anglo-Dutch oil giant, Shell, has put its new 10 MW renewable hydrogen production plant into service. The biggest of its kind in Europe. The electrolyzer is located at Shell’s Rheinland refinery, near Cologne in Germany. Benefiting from European Commission funding, it will produce up to 1 300 tons of green hydrogen per year, but plans […]
July 07, 2021
Renault has released more details about its hydrogen collaboration with Plug Power, baptized HYVIA. Already by the end of this year, the joint venture, which serves as an appendix to Renault’s electric branch, will be offering three vans in different sizes, equipped with a zero-emission fuel cell. The biggest van Renault offers is the Master […]
July 06, 2021
German automotive supplier Eberspächer is taking over for 100% Boulder-based (Colorado) ViCTORi LLC and its VAIREX branded air systems. Being a US supplier of fuel cell compressor systems to the global fuel cell industry, the latter buys the German family-owned specialist in exhaust technology, automotive controls, and thermal management a foothold in the fuel cell […]
July 02, 2021
British-American start-up in hydrogen-powered aviation, ZeroAvia, is setting the bar higher again with the development of a 19-seater twin-engined airplane for short-haul flights, capable of covering a range of 800 km. ZeroAvia was the first to feature a six-seater H2-powered electric airplane passenger flight in September 2020. ZeroAvia acquired two twin-engine 19-seat Dornier 228 aircraft […]
June 22, 2021
Last week, French racing driver Oliver Lombard presented at the Viva Technology event in Paris the official ‘Alpha 0’ prototype of his dream car he’s going to build, the hydrogen-powered Hopium Māchina. At the same time, preordering is opened for the first 1 000 numbered cars, at the symbolic price of 410 euros. The reservation […]
June 16, 2021
The BMW Group is beginning to test near-standard vehicles with a hydrogen fuel cell drive train on everyday European roads. Prototypes of the BMW i Hydrogen NEXT will examine how effectively the CO2-free drive train, model-specific chassis technology, and vehicle electronics systems work together under real-life conditions. The BMW i Hydrogen NEXT is a purely […]
June 16, 2021
The British/Indian manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is developing a fuel cell-powered prototype of the recent Land Rover Defender, which starts testing in the UK later this year. The H2 off-road vehicle is created as part of Jaguar Land Rover’s research and development into future technologies. The development project represents one aspect of the company’s […]
June 07, 2021
French Renault Group has finalized its intended 50/50 joint venture with American fuel cell developer Plug Power to capture a 30% share of the EU market of hydrogen-driven light commercial vehicles (LCVs). The first three fuel cell vehicles brought to market by HYVIA, as the joint venture is baptized, will be based on the Renault […]
June 04, 2021
Near the Port House on the Antwerp Eilandje, the company CMB has opened a multimodal hydrogen filling station on the border of the city and the port. According to CMB, an Antwerp shipping company that focuses on hydrogen solutions for maritime and industrial applications, it’s the first filling station in the world that produces green […]
June 04, 2021
The transportation and logistics sector is moving towards a zero-emission scenario just as rapidly as the car sector. But since fuel cost has a severe impact on their business models, the switch is much more significant. The willingness from the sector is already in place. According to a survey conducted by the bank ING (jointly […]
June 01, 2021
Six Belgian pioneers in hydrogen production as a clean alternative energy source are joining forces in a consortium baptized ‘Hyve’. The goal is to integrate new electrolyzing techniques into green hydrogen production of gigawatt-scale in two years and actually use it in different applications, like transport. In the consortium, Flemish research centers Imec and VITO, […]
May 27, 2021
On Wednesday, French petroleum group Total announced the purchase of a 20% share of Hysetco, the company managing the Hype hydrogen taxis running in Paris. The joint venture between Air Liquide, Toyota, Kouros, and the Société du taxi électrique parisien (STEP) currently operates one hundred hydrogen taxis and two filling stations. The aim is to […]
May 26, 2021
In 2025, Mercedes-Benz will try to use ‘green steel’ to produce all its vehicles, thus reducing its carbon footprint further. The Stuttgarters are the first car manufacturer to take an equity stake in the Swedish start-up H2 Green Steel (H2GS) to introduce CO2-free steel into series production. The partnership with HSGS is another step towards […]
May 26, 2021
Hydrogène de France (HDF Energy) is settling on the grounds of the abandoned Ford Blanquefort plant in Bordeaux, France, to build high-power fuel cells for high-capacity hydrogen power plants. The new company should start production in 2023, four years after Ford stopped its gearbox production and closed the plant. The huge, 80 hectares assembly site […]
May 21, 2021
Since April, Daimler Truck’s heavy-duty hydrogen truck, the Mercedes-Benz GenH2 presented as a prototype in September last year, is doing ‘rigorous’ test laps on the circuit, prepping for road tests by the end of this year. Meantime, Daimler Truck joins forces with Dutch Shell for a ‘hydrogen-powered freight corridor’ with 150 fueling stations between Rotterdam, […]
May 19, 2021
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), we all will have to make radical decisions to meet the Paris climate goals. We have to stop exploring new oil and gas fields and we have to aim at zero emissions by 2050, the agency says in a new report. It all depends on how energy is […]
May 18, 2021
After Stellantis Group announcing the beginning of April it will have three hydrogen-powered vans in its dealerships by the end of the year, Opel had unveiled its part of the trio, the Vivaro-e HYDROGEN. It offers an extended range of more than 400 km and an increased payload to 1 100 kg compared to the […]
May 06, 2021
French Air Liquide, Colruyt’s DATS 24, and Port of Antwerp announced their intention to deploy up to 300 hydrogen-driven fuel cell trucks by 2025 and establish six high-capacity hydrogen fueling stations. The initiative is part of the HyTrucks project, a consortium of more than 40 companies aiming at putting a fleet of 1 000 hydrogen […]
May 06, 2021
Three major Japanese marine engine manufacturers, Yanmar, Kawasaki, and J-ENG, have joined forces to develop hydrogen technology for ocean-going and coastal vessels and bring hydrogen-fueled engines and ship generators to the market by 2025. But it will be Belgian technology, by CMB.Tech that will take the lead in Japan’s first hydrogen-fueled ferry for 80 passengers, […]
May 05, 2021
Announced for ‘late’ 2022, BMW is currently preparing for small-series production of its i Hydrogen NEXT FCEV at its Landshut factory in Germany. At the Lightweight Construction and Technology Centre (LuTZ) in Landshut, complex components like the so-called stack housing are made for the Toyota-made core fuel cell system. “However, conditions needed to be able […]
May 04, 2021
The Flanders Innovation cluster for Logistics (VIL) demoed in the Antwerp harbor the use of hydrogen for empowering a terminal tractor to move containers. It’s part of the so-called Hydrolog project, studying the use of hydrogen for internal logistics within companies, rather than the classic focus on transport. In the project, a mobile hydrogen filling […]
April 30, 2021
Daimler Truck AG and Volvo Group have outlined their plans for their Cellcentric joint venture, envisioning to start mass production of fuel cells for trucks as soon as 2025. In the online presentation, Martin Lundstedt, CEO of the Volvo Group, described it as a ‘giga-factory’ for fuel cells. Where they’re going to plump down this […]
April 22, 2021
America’s second-largest gasoline company, Chevron, and Toyota Motor North America have jointly announced that they will pursue an alliance on hydrogen. Together, they aim at collaborating on hydrogen-related public policy, as well as study market demand for fuel cell vehicles, and research hydrogen-powered transportation and storage. “This is another important step toward building a hydrogen […]
April 09, 2021
A consortium with partners from Belgium, Germany, Spain, and Portugal is testing a bi-modal train prototype, which uses its pantograph on regular electrified lines and a fuel cell and hydrogen to make its own electricity when not available. Brussels-based Toyota Motor Europe will supply the fuel cells. The project, called FCH2RAIL (Fuel Cell Hybrid Power […]
April 08, 2021
Clean, ‘green hydrogen’ made with renewable energy will become cheaper sooner than expected, with costs dropping by 85% to become even cheaper than natural gas by 2050. That is, below $1/kg ($7,4/MMBtu) by 2050, says BloombergNEV (BNEV), the Bloomberg media concern’s energy research branch, after readjusting its energy outlook. The key driver will be the […]
April 02, 2021
American heavy fuel cell truck developer Hyzon is launching its leasing service in the European Union. It’s intended to be a ‘holistic fleet leasing offering’ for the European market that includes the Hyzon FCEV trucks, the hydrogen fuel, insurance, service, and maintenance. Hyzon, which is to build the trucks in the Netherlands, aims to be […]
