General Motors and mining and construction equipment giant Komatsu plan to jointly design and validate the hydrogen fuel cell technology for the 930E electric drive mining truck. GM has been conducting hydrogen fuel cell research and product development for more than 50 years and has developed platforms for both lithium-ion batteries and hydrogen fuel cells.
Mining trucks typically operate at a single mine throughout their life, a situation that simplifies the challenge of rolling out hydrogen refueling stations. GM and Komatsu plan to test the prototype HYDROTEC-powered mining vehicle in the mid-2020s at Komatsu’s Arizona Proving Grounds research and development facility. The prototype mining truck will be powered by more than 2 megawatts of HYDROTEC power cubes.
Source: Electrek: Read The Article
PSR Analysis: This is an interesting take on a problem that may have already been solved but it makes a first with GM and Komatsu and that’s a step in the right direction. Some pundits question whether the economics of hydrogen are a non-starter, especially since we already have battery electric superheavy haulers in service. It takes roughly three times as much electricity to generate hydrogen and then burn it as it does to just power up batteries. Watch this space to see how GM and Komatsu resolve this issue. PSR
Guy Youngs, is Forecast & Adoption Lead at Power Systems Research
