n Hydrogen fuel might not be the solution to all of the world’ s environmental problems – it’ s energyintensive to produce, negating much of the emissions benefits it has. But that’ s not to say it doesn’ t have its uses. Both BMW and JCB are continuing to develop passenger cars and plant, respectively, to run on hydrogen – either to power a fuel cell or to be used in an internal combustion engine.

It’ s in the commercial sector and haulage, however, where the quick-fuelling long-range capabilities of hydrogen – similar to that of diesel vehicles and far beyond what electric trucks can achieve – where early adoption of hydrogen-fuelled vehicles is most likely to take place. To speed the process up even further, rather than waiting for new hydrogen-powered trucks to be developed, Mahle Powertrain and

Metier Technologies have worked on a solution to convert fleets of current diesel vehicles to run on liquid hydrogen.

Metier Technologies, an innovation and transport technology company based in the UK, has converted a DAF LF220 to run on hydrogen as an example of how it can transform trucks to use a new fuel. Firstly, the old diesel engine is removed and replaced with a similar unit, but one that runs on hydrogen.

To adapt the new motor to hydrogen fuel. Metier has used Mahle Powertrain’ s Flexible ECU, which has been developed to be used on a wide variety of internal combustion engines, to find the level of control it needed to precisely calibrate the engine to run on the new fuel. The advanced ECU is used to control specialised hydrogen injectors, too.

Finally, the diesel tanks are also

removed. In their place go the high-pressure vessels that hydrogen needs to be stored in.

As with any hydrogen-powered vehicle, the only substance to come out of the exhaust is water, making the converted trucks very inner-city friendly vehicles. The conversion also offers a much more cost-effective and everyday usable solution to other emission-free commercial vehicles and allows older truck chassis access to lowand zero-emission urban areas.

A hydrogen burning truck might be the immediate solution for hauliers looking to operate in low or zero-emission city centres