Hydrogen trucks to get road-tested in Canada’s oil country

Unlike the forthcoming Nikola Motors hydrogen fuel cell trucks, the Alberta pilot program involves assembling Freightliner glider kits with Ballard FCmove-HD cells. Nordresa in Quebec is integrating the fuel cells into the Freightliners.

“If this works, it could be expanded into something bigger. Maybe a hydrogen corridor with hundreds of trucks, with carriers and shippers involved.”

Jessica Lof, analyst, Canadian Energy Systems Analysis Research Initiative, University of Calgary

The trucks are being paired with the double b-train trailers in line with the needs of Alberta’s transportation industry, said Jessica Lof of the University of Calgary’s Canadian Energy Systems Analysis Research Initiative, which helped conceive the AZETEC program.

“There are unique demands in Alberta. We wanted a technology that would work for that,” said Lof, an energy systems analyst.

Lof said she hopes it will lead to a larger hydrogen-based transportation initiative in Alberta.

“If this works, it could be expanded into something bigger. Maybe a hydrogen corridor with hundreds of trucks, with carriers and shippers involved,” Lof said.

Hydrogen also is potentially more palatable in the heart of Canada’s oil sands country. The province’s newly elected premier, Jason Kenney, plans to scrap its carbon tax by the end of May.

In her research, Lof has noted the viability of using existing oil and natural gas supplies for hydrogen conversion.

“If there is an energy transition away from diesel to zero-emissions fuel, it would be in Alberta’s economic interest to be able to supply this new market, while continuing to supply oil for the remaining diesel fuel market,”  wrote Lof and Professor David Layzell, who heads the Canadian Energy Systems Analysis Initiative.