Ben Nyland, President and CEO, Loop Power
Photograph: Loop Power
What do you should learn about hydrogen gasoline cells? Gas-cell provider Loop Power has been round for practically 20 years, so HDT Talks Trucking requested Loop President and CEO Ben Nyland. We have got highlights from that interview on this podcast preview.
Loop Power is not a reputation you have heard across the dinner desk – but. Most of its publicity has been in China and Europe, the place gasoline cell know-how and fleet uptake is advancing extra quickly than it’s right here. Its presence in North America is new, about two years now, nevertheless it already has some demonstration initiatives below means. Essentially the most seen of these is a undertaking with Peterbilt and TransPower in California, the place Loop offered the range-extender gasoline cell to a Mannequin 579 EV.
Nyland defines the corporate as a fuel-cell engine firm, very similar to Cummins is to the truck producers. The core a part of the enterprise is creating hydrogen gasoline cells to be used in light-, medium- and heavy-duty business automobiles.
“In different elements of the world, like China and Europe, the market is scaling extra shortly, and we’re transferring from demonstration initiatives to precise business rollouts,” Nyland says. “However at this time in North America, the heavy-duty market continues to essentially be dominated by diesel and pure gasoline.”
Q: The place or in what segments do you see hydrogen gasoline cells first rolling out?
A: What we’re seeing all over the world is that call is being pushed by the market greater than something. China, for instance, is essentially the most aggressive marketplace for gasoline cells on this planet and can stay so for the following decade. The Chinese language authorities has chosen 10 cities they name hydrogen cities that they are going to help in a major strategy to actually construct out the hydrogen infrastructure and provide chain. We see a spotlight in Shanghai and Beijing for instance, on what we’d name medium obligation business automobiles – municipal bus fleets and heavier logistics automobiles, so Eight- to 10-ton vans. And that’s actually driving a sure section of gasoline cell sizes.
In Europe, we’re seeing one thing totally different. Regulators there are requiring automobile operators to cut back or get rid of their diesel use. We’re seeing the most important strikes coming from smaller business automobiles, logistics automobiles within the three-and-a-half to seven- or eight-ton dimension, such because the Volkswagen e-Crafter and the Daimler Sprinter van. Whereas these fleets have been fairly aggressive over the previous few years in evaluating battery-electric options, they’re coming to the conclusion that as a way to deploy throughout your complete fleet, they really want a hybrid fuel-cell/battery resolution [range extender].
In California, which is admittedly the one significant zero-emission market in North America at this stage, it is too early to inform. There have been pilot initiatives throughout totally different sizes of automobiles. There’s a whole lot of momentum within the smaller automobiles, the Rivians of the world, and Lightning eMotors (previously Lightning Techniques), for instance. Our undertaking in California is heavy-duty [a joint development with Transpower of a Peterbilt 579 EV range extender], and there is a clear lower benefit in heavy-duty for gasoline cells. So, I’d count on that we’ll see the primary actual traction in North America in that heavy-duty class Eight market, and that may probably begin in city markets just like the drayage market.
Q: What questions ought to fleets be asking about hydrogen gasoline cells?
A: Properly, there’s in all probability too many to reply right here, however off the highest of my head the primary query must be what is the obligation cycle for my automobiles? Do they know the way far do they should journey? How a lot cargo do they should haul? And do they need totally different automobiles totally different automobile within the fleet to cope with totally different obligation cycles? Many operators desire one sort of car to allow them to learn to keep it, so there is not any thriller about it.
They should choose a automobile that may handle their most tough run, the longest run with the heaviest cargo. And that’s sometimes pushes operators in direction of a gasoline cell or gasoline cell hybrid with a battery.
The second factor that is vital is the scale of the fleet. When deploying one or two automobiles, battery electrical is far easier to do since you in all probability have already got the infrastructure in place. You possibly can plug them in and cost them in a single day. You possibly can fulfill that with pretty minimal upgrades to current infrastructure. The alternative is true for gasoline cells. In the event you’re solely deploying one or two automobiles, it may be a excessive bar to deploy as a result of there is probably not gasoline within the space. And hydrogen will be very costly to maneuver in small portions. However as you scale the fleet, when you get to fleet sizes of 50 or 100, or perhaps even simply 20, then you definately begin operating into some very important electrical challenges. You might have to improve transmission infrastructure to the ability due to draw of those automobiles. Whereas if you get into these bigger fleets, it turns into a lot simpler to deploy hydrogen automobiles. And the fee effectiveness of hydrogen improves dramatically with quantity. The benefit and the economics of deployment, will increase dramatically for gasoline cells over batteries because the fleet dimension will increase.
Loop Power offered the range-extender gasoline cell to this Peterbilt Mannequin 579 EV. It is going to be working in a port drayage utility because the know-how is developed and optimized.
Photograph: Loop Power
Q: We’re listening to about two several types of Class Eight gasoline cell vans, the fuel-cell-dominant model and the vary extender. Are you able to outline the distinction?
A: Gas cells are an vitality era supply. You possibly can consider it as a form of battery. When you’ve gotten a gasoline cell and a battery financial institution, the first goal of the gasoline cell system is to recharge the batteries. It is the batteries which might be actually driving the automobile and we name this configuration a variety extender.
That form of deployment lends itself extraordinarily nicely to an city freight surroundings, like drayage or a logistics automobile, the place speeds are pretty low and there is a lot of cease and go driving and many alternative for regenerative braking. What you’d see in that surroundings is a battery pack that is sized to deal with peak acceleration and peak energy necessities. The gasoline cell could be sized to handle the common energy requirement for the automobile, which will be fairly low over time, due to the regenerative braking alternatives.
The gasoline cell for a drayage truck in an city surroundings, would possibly must be solely 50 to 70 kilowatts as a result of the batteries play a extra dominant position with all of the beginning and stopping.
Once we have a look at one thing like a long-haul truck, and this may be the kind of market that Nikola goes after, it makes extra sense to go to what we name a fuel-cell-dominant powertrain the place the gasoline cell is definitely offering many of the energy and the battery simply shops the regenerative braking vitality and helps acceleration.
When sizing a gasoline cell for a long-haul heavy-duty truck, you should provide at the very least 150 kilowatts of energy, as a result of that is what a category Eight automobile requires at freeway velocity. However you really need extra, like perhaps 200 or 250 kilowatts of energy to supply the mandatory acceleration.
So, in a variety prolonged automobile, there are extra batteries and that provides to the load of the automobile. However it additionally supplies entry to inexpensive working and higher regenerative braking alternatives. The distinction, actually, is that you just’re buying and selling off the scale of the battery financial institution in opposition to the scale of the gasoline cell. Combining batteries and gasoline cells additionally offers the operators the flexibility to make these trade-offs based mostly on their meant purposes.
Q: Numerous manufacturers of diesel engine all do primarily the identical factor, however they accomplish it in barely alternative ways. What about gasoline cells? Are there variations between totally different suppliers?
A: Completely. Completely different diesel engine firms have chosen totally different efficiency metrics to compete on. It may be low-end torque, it may be high-end effectivity, after which they accomplish these variations via totally different cylinder sizes, totally different compression ratios, totally different supplies that they use within the engine. All those self same components apply in barely alternative ways to gasoline cells.
We will management the pressures at which the gases enter the gasoline cell, and relying on how you modify the strain, it modifications the traits of the gasoline cell — whether or not it is effectivity or energy output. And every gasoline cell firm has its personal secret sauce or know-how. At Loop, now we have a know-how suite that we consult with as E-flow. And e circulation is a major aggressive differentiator. It is one of many causes that Cummins made the funding in Loop, and it offers us benefits within the market that permit us to ship higher gasoline effectivity and a smaller package deal. We will pull a few of these levers to distinguish ourselves from Ballard or Bosch and different rivals within the market.
Q: Individuals have expressed concern about working battery-electric automobiles in northern climates the place it will get actually chilly within the winter. Will gasoline cells have those self same temperature-related points?
A: No. There is no such thing as a efficiency influence by way of effectivity on a gasoline cell automobile based mostly on temperature. And we see this reality driving quite a lot of business markets, together with buses, the place you get form of a double whammy on efficiency in a winter. On an electrical transit bus, for instance, not solely do you see a discount within the efficiency of the batteries, you additionally have to run heaters, which usually are electrical heaters, so the effectivity and vary of a municipal bus drops dramatically over the winter months in a spot like Edmonton, Winnipeg or New York Metropolis. In any metropolis the place you see temperatures beneath zero over the winter, gasoline cells have a dramatic efficiency benefit over batteries.
Initially posted on Trucking Data
