Dairy farmers in the Taupō area look set to have their milk collected by a new dual-fuel tanker that's powered by hydrogen as well as diesel.
It's a Volvo tanker, with a 522 kilowatt engine, operated by Måori-owned Miraka at Mokai, northwest of Taupõ.
Able to haul 58 tonnes, the Volvo tanker will cover around 165,000 kilometres a year collecting milk, Miraka said.
It needs two hydrogen refills a day. Volvo's heavy goods vehicles that run on green hydrogen are classified as Net Zero for CO2 if they use renewable hydro-treated vegetable oil (HVO) as the ignition fuel.
Miraka's chairman Bruce Scott said the hydrogen dual-fuel tanker is designed to reduce CO2 emissions by around 35% per vehicle, benefiting the taiao, the environment and the community.
The partners in the hydrogen project are freight company Central Transport and Halcyon Power; the former is the exclusive supplier of milk tankers to Miraka, with 80 vehicles in its fleet.
Halcyon Power, meanwhile, is a joint venture between Tűaropaki Trust and Obayashi Corporation in Japan, as the country's first commercial scale green hydrogen plant, adjacent to Miraka's dairy plant. It opened in 2021, and the partners have since then launched another facility in Wiri this year.
Green hydrogen is produced through electrolysis of water, using renewable electricity. A number of projects have sprung up in New Zealand over the past years, to produce and use the low-emission fuel, according to the NZ Hydrogen Council.
Heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) account for around a quarter of all road transport emissions in New Zealand, and the government launched the Green Freight project in 2019 to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases the sector produces.
Electricity, biofuels and green hydrogen are under consideration as power sources for freight trucks, to reduce GHG emissions. In New Zealand, Hyundai has delivered a hydrogen fuel cell-electric truck for NZ Post, with 180 kW output and a 400 kilometre range.
Miraka lays claim to being the first dairy processor to use renewable geothermal energy, through Tűaropaki Trust's Mokai Power Station.
24 Comments
In 2 minds about this. We really need to decide, battery, or hydrogen. I don't think we can afford to double up on the infrastructure to do both.
They would be ideally placed to provide a large charging facility for trucks heading through the Taupo area. The hilly terrain should favour battery electric with regenerative braking recharging .
Pulled out, obviously, those that have gone broke so far, and there are quite a few of those. Many companies including Ford, GM, VW, Nissan have either pulled back or delayed or are re-assessing whether EVs will continue, i.e. Nissan has postponed plans for building EVs and introducing new models into the United States, and has delayed plans to introduce any EV into NZ, and cancelled the leaf. Delays and postponements will then be upgraded to complete cancellation. I heard MG is cancelling pure EV and will instead produce hybrid, but I have not been able to find confirmation of that.
Right so you don't know any car makers pulling out of EV tech.
Nissan has not pulled out of building EVs. You can't look at them deciding not to launch an individual model in a individual market and decide they are pulling out of EV Tech.
Nissan don't sell the Z in the UK. Based on that are you going to claim they are pulling out of ICE tech?
"Nearly one in five cars sold in 2023 was electric"
"Electric car sales remained strong in the first quarter of 2024, surpassing those of the same period in 2023 by around 25% to reach more than 3 million. This growth rate was similar to the increase observed for the same period in 2023 compared to 2022."
- spin it how you wish.
https://www.iea.org/reports/global-ev-outlook-2024/trends-in-electric-c…
The hand out, aka clean car rebate or ute tax when introduced reduced sales of diesel and petrol cars, because it increased the price. Full electric and hybrid sale increased because of the discount. Economics impacts peoples choices which is why electric transport will win out thanks to cheaper fuel costs.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/NZEVOwners/permalink/3691626034438017/
Hope this is accessible, if not it shows the hydrogen fuel cycle been only 1/4 as efficient as battery electric.
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