Scania is developing a fuel cell refuse truck together with Renova, a waste handling company in western Sweden. “We are highly interested in gaining more experience of fuel cells in actual customer operations,” said Project Manager Marita Nilsson, Electric Powertrain Technology at Scania. “Fuel cells constitute a promising technology in the needed decarbonization of transports.”
Refuse trucks often operate in residential areas in the early hours of the morning. With reduced emissions and noise, fuel cell vehicles are especially attractive in these areas. Renova and other waste handling companies have previously carried out trials with alternative fuel refuse trucks but this will be the first with fuel cells.
“Electrification using fuel cells fueled by hydrogen is a highly appealing alternative for heavy commercial vehicles such as refuse trucks,” said Hans Zackrisson, Head of Development at Renova. “The trucks benefit from all the advantages of electrification while maintaining some of the best aspects of fossil-fuel operations, namely range, hours in service and payload.”
The project is being implemented in cooperation with the Swedish Energy Agency and Stockholm’s Royal Institute of Technology and the hydrogen fuel cell refuse truck is expected to be delivered in the end of 2019/beginning of 2020.
Scania has previously announced that it is developing fuel cell technology in cooperation with the Norwegian food wholesaler Asko, which has opened its own production plant for sustainable hydrogen. Scania is delivering four distribution fuel cell trucks with a range of 500 km to Asko.
Source: Scania
