New Jersey to Test Hydrogen Trucks at Port
Are hydrogen-powered trucks the future? That is what the state of New Jersey wants to find out, as it plans to spend $13 million to fund infrastructure to support six hydrogen-powered drayage trucks to move cargo around the Port Newark Container Terminal.
Details
The project is very much what you would expect: it is research spearheaded by the School of Engineering’s Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation at Rutgers University, working in tandem with various for-profit businesses such as Hyundai providing the trucks and the Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) providing the charging infrastructure, collecting data on daily operations for twelve months to see if hydrogen-powered vehicles have what it takes with current-day technology to match their older diesel brethren.
Various metrics being measured by Rutgers University includes:
- Fuel consumption rates compared to diesel.
- Maintenance costs compared to diesel.
- Refueling rates compared to diesel.
“PSEG’s expertise in hydrogen across industrial settings well positions us to partner in this initiative at Port Newark,” said Jeffrey Stokes, senior director of PSEG’s renewables engineering and technical support in regards to the project. “We’re proud to bring that experience to the forefront as we support truck-fueling operations for the project. PSEG aims to drive reliable energy infrastructure while also supporting the state’s efforts to drive economic development.”
Conclusion
Once the project is done with construction and its twelve months of testing, it will be interesting to see the metrics and whether or not hydrogen-powered vehicles handling drayage around the port can keep toe-to-toe with its diesel-powered counterpart doing the exact same thing.
As it currently stands, hydrogen is a long ways away from becoming a viable replacement for diesel. Storage requires a lot more space, it leaks easily because pure hydrogen is the smallest molecule, and it is even more flammable than diesel in the right circumstances. With all that in mind, however, a controlled experiment with repetitive and reduced distance transportation may just be what the alternative fuel needs to get a boost in eventually replacing diesel fuel, even if it happens in 2050. We will just have to wait and see what happens.
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