LONGVIEW, N.C — OneH2, a North Carolina based hydrogen fuel production company with facilities in California, has been selected to supply zero emission hydrogen for a fleet of fuel cell electric trucks to be operated at the Ports of Los Angeles and San Diego. The fleet of hydrogen powered on-road heavy trucks has been funded through a California Air Resources Board (CARB) grant with $6.8M of matched funds from CARB and the technology partners.
Managed by the Gas Technology Institute (GTI), the technology partners include TransPower, Frontier Energy and the Center for Sustainable Energy.
OneH2’s role is to provide both mobile and fixed hydrogen infrastructure to allow truck refueling, as well as the necessary hydrogen fuel to power the fleet. The annual greenhouse gas emission reductions that are associated with the project are expected to be 77 metric tons per zero emission truck per year. Also, because hydrogen fuel cell propulsion emits no air pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide or diesel particulates, there are expected to be significant additional air quality benefits over conventional hydrocarbon internal combustion powered trucks.
One of the main objectives of the project is to provide both the State of California and commercial enterprise with performance data in order to assess the overall benefit of the operation of hydrogen powered trucks under real-world conditions. OneH2 is confident that with scale, hydrogen fuel can challenge diesel under a true operating cost scenario. It is expected that this data will provide on-road heavy truck fleet managers with a clear pathway to switch to zero-emission hydrogen fuel without compromising day to day operating costs.
The project, known as the Fast Track Fuel Cell Truck Project (“FAST TRACK”) was awarded $5.1 Million by California Climate Investments, a statewide program that puts billions of cap-and-trade dollars to work reducing greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening the economy and improving public health and the environment, particularly in disadvantaged communities.
In conjunction with the project, OneH2 expects to showcase its innovative Heavy Truck refueling technology that is due to play a major role in the future of the hydrogen fuel industry.