The UK government has announced an award of GBP7m for the development of a hydrogen fuel station for heavy goods vehicles in the Tees Valley combined authority, following an award last year of GBP8m for the deployment of fuel stations and hydrogen-powered vehicles in the area.

Founded in 2013, FirstElement Fuel operates 41 hydrogen fuel stations in California for light vehicle under its ‘True Zero’ brand.

Starting in Germany, Hemtron will build a hydrogen fuel network on new greenfield sites and at third-party stations, concentrating on locations near logistics centres and motorways. 

Air Liquide said that in the initial phase of deployment, they hope to refuel 2,000 HDVs per day which will require roughly 150-tonnes of hydrogen. Currently, both companies are assessing the viability of the project.

The truck was driven by an internal combustion engine fitted with Westport’s ‘H2 HPDI’ system, which enables it to run optimally with hydrogen fuel instead of diesel.

Chief Commercial Officer Eric Baleviez announced to the press at Busworld that groundbreaking on a new plant in Albi would happen either later this year or early next year.

The four projects are expected to take place over seven years, with the first two allocated for planning and procurement and the next five for trials.

A pilot scheme involving four Wrightbus ‘Hydroliners’ will start early next year, transporting workers to and from the construction site near Leiston.

As head of Nikola’s energy division, Cappello will direct the company’s ‘Hyla’ brand, which is involved in the production and distribution of hydrogen for fuelling purposes.

The funding is to come from the Department for Transport (DfT), National Highways, HS2 Ltd, Network Rail and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

Plans for this project first emerged in Haskel’s white paper published in 2022 where it outlined plans to provide Coregas with its turnkey GENO hydrogen refuelling station (HRS*), designed for highly demanding refuelling profiles that deliver back-to-back filling, with a capacity of 400kg of hydrogen per day.

Under the agreement, charging stations for Commercial Vehicles (CVs) will be placed every 120km along the EU’s main highways by 2028, whilst hydrogen refuelling stations will be installed at least every 200km by 2031.