Hyundai’s hydrogen push

Hyundai has had a diesel prime mover on the market in Australia for a while. This year at the Brisbane Truck Show, however, their displayed model was an Xcient Fuel Cell. Those last two words indicate that this truck is hydrogen powered.

The company is not new to the world of H2, having built the first hydrogen station in the southern hemisphere at Macquarie Park in Sydney back in 2014 to power their IX35 fuel cell vehicle.

While many OEM’s are heading straight down the EV track here in Australia – and Hyundai is playing in that arena as well with their small Mighty truck – the company sees Hydrogen as the only viable option for long distance transport.

The Xcient Fuel Cell H2 (or HTWO in Hyundai speak) has been around since 2021.

Its first deployment was in Switzerland where it has done over 30 million kilometres, is now in Germany and other parts of Europe and also is deployed in the United States as a Class A prime mover.

The Australian version uses 350 bar tanks which hold 32kg of H2. The US versions hold 62kg of hydrogen at twice the pressure (700 bar) which is the same pressure that cars take.

So, cars and trucks use two different pressures. Trucks and buses normally use 350 bar because infrastructure, tanks and regs are cheaper. But going to 700 bar gives longer range.

If you’re looking at the attached photo and thinking this isn’t a prime mover, it’s just that the truck arrived so late that Hyundai ran out of time to move the pod of tanks sitting over the rear axle to their position up against the cabin wall.

This particular truck on 350 bar, gives about 400km of range (verses 700km in the US) but that will change in the future.

Infrastructure, or the lack of it at this time is the major hurdle to the acceptance of H2. There are currently nine stations operational in Australia with another five in construction but that is simply not enough.

Compare this with Germany where there are 69 operational and another 14 under construction. Time and pressure to reach net zero should fix this problem.

How does it work? In very simple terms purified hydrogen and oxygen pass through (in this case) two fuel cells. Each fuel cell is around the size of a beer carton and has 440 plates, each plate putting out between 0.5 – 1.5 volts. So a total of 880 volts which drive electric motors.

All that’s left over in the process is purified air and water. In fact a couple of hundred kilometres will produce enough air for 10 people to breathe for a full day, so the system is actually a rolling air purifier.

To refill is easier than LPG. Think of it as a trigger nozzle the same as a petrol browser with the thickness and length of a Coke can in front of the trigger. You put it onto the receptacle; it locks on and there is infrared communication between the refuelling nozzle and the truck tanks.

They talk to each other so if any part is not happy with the filling protocol it will be shut off. Decanting (or filling) is done at -20 to -40°.

We decant at these temperatures because hydrogen at ambient temperature under really high pressure, when you put it into the tanks, expands into a vacuum and creates heat. Those low minus temperatures are so the integrity of the tanks will not be impacted.

So the standard is -40º for cars which trucks could do as well. Trucks are mainly filling at -20º but that should change in time. The colder you can make the hydrogen the quicker you can refill.

For example, to refill the car at -40° is a 3-to-5-minute fill, giving 6kg of hydrogen to take you 650km. At -20º it might take 6 to 7 minutes, at ambient it might take 10 or 15 minutes.

So, hydrogen goes more quickly when it’s cold. Most stations in Australia are filling at either -20º or -40°.

The result of all this is that with progress, H2 trucks will be quick to refill, will cover the same distances a diesel, and will give back to Mother Earth.

Oh, and they will be as silent as an EV. What’s not to like.