Daimler Truck, one of the world’s largest commercial vehicle manufacturers, is celebrating a milestone this week after putting a prototype truck to the test using liquid hydrogen, an important step in the company’s efforts to decarbonise transportation.

According to Daimler Truck, the company has been testing a Mercedes-Benz GenH2 Truck fuel-cell prototype on its in-house track and on public roads. However, the company announced on Monday that it had put another prototype into operation to test the use of liquid hydrogen.

Daimler Truck celebrated the important milestone recently after completing the first successful liquid hydrogen refuelling of the truck at a newly installed prototype filling station at its development and testing centre in Wörth, Germany.

The refuelling process – undertaken in partnership with French industrial gases company Air Liquide – filled two 40kg tanks with cryogenic liquid hydrogen at minus 253 degrees Celsius. Importantly, the two tanks are insulated in such a way as to keep the temperature stable for a sufficiently long time to avoid the need for active cooling measures.

“Daimler Truck prefers liquid hydrogen in the development of hydrogen-based drives,” the company said in a press release this week.

“In this aggregate state the energy carrier has a significantly higher energy density in relation to volume compared to gaseous hydrogen. As a result, more hydrogen can be carried, which significantly increases the range and enables comparable performance of the vehicle with that of a conventional diesel truck.”

Daimler Truck is aiming to eventually push the Mercedes-Benz GenH2 Truck fuel-cell prototype to a range of up to 1,000 kilometres and beyond, making the truck suitable for a range of applications – especially in the heavy-duty long-haul transport sector. However, this appears a ways off, with Daimler expecting series production to begin in the second half of the decade.

But as part of Daimler’s larger commitment to hydrogen, the company is working with the world’s largest industrial gas company, Linde, on the development of a new process for handling liquid hydrogen – called, interchangeably, “subcooled” liquid hydrogen, or “sLH2 technology”.

The new process enables even higher storage density and easier refuelling when compared to traditional liquid hydrogen (LH2) and the two companies are aiming at the first refuelling of a prototype vehicle at a pilot station in Germany next year.

Joshua S. Hill is a Melbourne-based journalist who has been writing about climate change, clean technology, and electric vehicles for over 15 years. He has been reporting on electric vehicles and clean technologies for Renew Economy and The Driven since 2012. His preferred mode of transport is his feet.

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