Canada invests in commercialising fuel cell trucks
The government of Canada said June 3 it had invested C$2.3mn (US$1.9mn) in an Alberta-led collaborative to prove the design, manufacture and operation of long-range fuel cell electric trucks operating between Edmonton and Calgary.
The Alberta Zero-Emissions Truck Electrification Collaboration (AZETEC) project is being led by the Alberta Motor Transport Association (AMTA), and includes partners Hydrogen Technology and Energy, Zen Clean Energy Solutions, Canadian Energy Systems Analysis Research and two trucking companies active in the Calgary-Edmonton corridor, Bison Transport and Trimac Transportation.
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Federal funding for AZETEC came from Natural Resources Canada’s Green Infrastructure-Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Demonstration Programme, which aims to accelerate the market entry of next-generation clean energy technologies. Emissions Reductions Alberta, Ballard Power Systems and e-propulsion developer Dana have also invested in AZETEC, bringing total funding to C$9.2mn.
Suncor Energy will supply the initial stages of the project with gray hydrogen recovered from its refinery processes. Eventually, however, blue hydrogen, from Suncor’s planned project with distributor ATCO, could be made available, providing an anchor development for the Edmonton Region Hydrogen HUB.
While AMTA and other AZETEC partners are developing the 63.5-ton heavy-haul trucks, which will be powered by fuel cells developed by Vancouver-based Ballard, Alberta’s first hydrogen refuelling station will be developed to test that part of the value chain in real-world conditions, including the ability to operate in temperatures ranging from -40°C to +40°C and to refuel in 20-45 minutes.
The refueling station, which will be located at Suncor’s Edmonton-area refinery, should be operational by Q2 2022, when the first trucks are expected to be hitting the road.