Bavarian automaker BMW has introduced plans to transform the intralogistics fleet at its Regensburg plant from battery to hydrogen energy, with FCEV forklift and tugger vans set to interchange the whole thing of its current fleet by 2030.
Regardless of gross sales of BMW’s battery electrical beginning to take off, the propeller firm continues to be investing closely in gasoline cell growth – from its newest iX5 Hydrogen FCEV idea to, properly, the intralogistics fleet at its Regensburg plant, the place the corporate plans to make use of hydrogen forklifts and tuggers within the press store, physique store, and meeting strains.
BMW’s aggressive deployment timeline is, after all, loaded with issues. For starters, little or no hydrogen is definitely “inexperienced,” and nearly all of conventionally accessible hydrogen is created utilizing fossil fuels – making it each far much less environmentally sustainable than you would possibly assume … and much more costly than both diesel gasoline or battery capability.
Then there’s the outright misinformation, like this tidbit:
Switching manufacturing logistics from electrical energy to hydrogen will diversify our plant’s vitality combine – whereas optimizing logistics processes and saving useful house. The benefit of hydrogen is that refueling could be very quick – identical to with typical fuels. The filling stations required for this will probably be put in straight throughout the totally different manufacturing areas and don’t take up a lot house.
Undertaking Supervisor, BMW Regensburg, Katharina Radtke
I don’t assume this can be a state of affairs the place Katharina is making an attempt to unfold misinformation – however she does, like many hydrogen followers, appear to be misinformed.
See, once you replenish a storage tank with a gasoline like H or CNG, the gasoline heats up because it’s rapidly compelled into the tank, inflicting it to broaden. Which means the identical quantity of gasoline takes up extra bodily house sizzling than it does chilly – and, because the gasoline within the tank regularly cools down, it contracts, leaving empty house within the tank.
Which means you’ll be able to “quick fill” a hydrogen tank to 100% in a couple of minutes, but it surely’ll ultimately settle again right down to about 75-80% full, even when you don’t drive anyplace. You’ll then must “sluggish fill” the remaining capability to keep away from the same enlargement – and that can take hours.
You’ll be able to see an instance of this phenomenon, under, on this interactive infographic from the US Division of Vitality’s Different Fuels Knowledge Middle (AFDC).
Electrek’s Take
In case you’ll be able to’t learn between the strains, filling a tank with hydrogen isn’t any sooner than filling a battery with electrical energy, and even probably the most cryo-compressed hydrogen tanks can’t get too far previous a 90% quick fill … and so they produce other issues with boil off, leaks, and so on. All of which kind of begs the query: why make the swap to hydrogen in any respect?
Again in January, MAN Vans’ CEO, Alexander Vlaskamp, informed reporters that it was, “not possible for hydrogen to successfully compete with battery electrical vans.” Vlaskamp added, “In the present day you can not purchase hydrogen for lower than 13 or 14 euros … and it’s not inexperienced. And when we’ve got inexperienced hydrogen will probably be wanted for the heavy trade of metal, cement, or plastic.”
So — if all that’s true, why is MAN, like BMW, persevering with to put money into hydrogen-powered car applications? “Solely to check our speculation,” says Vlaskamp (emphasis mine). “We could use hydrogen for transportation in 2035, however provided that there may be sufficient inexperienced hydrogen on the proper value and the mandatory infrastructure is in place.”
To make sure it has sufficient H, BMW will set up a mile-long community of underground pipes, with six decentralized H filling stations, between now and Q1 of 2026. “As soon as the conversion is accomplished, our annual hydrogen consumption will probably be round 150 tonnes,” says Radtke.
Right here’s hoping BMW can get a greater deal than 14 euros for soiled gasoline by then.
SOURCE | IMAGES: BMW.
FTC: We use revenue incomes auto affiliate hyperlinks. Extra.
