Air Products & Cummins to drive global transition to fuel cell trucks
Air Products and Cummins want to drive the development and deployment of fuel cell trucks in the Americas, Europe and Asia. After a demonstration and pilot phase, Air Products plans to convert its global fleet of about 2,000 trucks to run on hydrogen with Cummins to supply the powertrains.
Air Products specialises in hydrogen transport and supply and, with this partnership, is progressing the fleet conversion to fuel cell electric vehicles on a global scale. The conversion will affect about 2,000 trucks and start next year.
Seifi Ghasemi, Air Products’ chairman, president and CEO, stated his belief that hydrogen is “the future for heavy-duty segments of the transportation market” and that his company would demonstrate its merits by being a first-mover in transitioning the fleet to FCEVs.
For Cummins, the new partnership combines existing on-road expertise with opportunities to increase the accessibility of renewable hydrogen, including hydrogen infrastructure.
Air Products claims its technologies are used in over 1.5 million refuellings annually across twenty countries, with Air Products having been involved in over 250 projects.
The partners have signed an MoU so far and expect a pilot phase to start in 2022.
This follows earlier news of Cummins forging partnerships to go deeper into the hydrogen market. Just two weeks ago, the engine maker signed an MoU with US oil company Chevron to discuss business opportunities in hydrogen and specifically exploring use cases for Cummins’ electrolyzer and FC technologies in Chevron refineries.
Cummins’ involvement in H2 also includes taking over fuel cell manufacturer Hydrogenics GmbH in 2019. Through Hydrogenics, the American company also intends to operate a plant in the German city of Herten, which will focus on assembling fuel cell systems for Alstom hydrogen trains.
Commenting on today’s partnership with Air Products, Tom Linebarger, Cummins chairman and CEO, stressed they needed the partnership of others to be successful and that this partnership with Air Products was the next step in leading the industry on the path to a zero-emissions future.
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