Air Liquide, DATS 24 and Port of Antwerp want to deploy 300 hydrogen-powered trucks, and the support infrastructure, in Belgium by 2025.
The trio’s ambitious plans are part of the HyTrucks initiative that hopes to see a total of 1000 hydrogen-powered trucks on the roads, and the infrastructure, between Belgium, the Netherlands and western Germany by 2025.
One of the largest European projects to deploy zero-emission heavy-duty fleets in Europe’s most intense traffic areas, HyTrucks aims to reduce CO2 emissions by an estimated amount of more than 100,000 tonnes per year through its effort.
In Belgium, the HyTrucks project aims at reducing CO2 emissions by an estimated amount of more than 30,000 tonnes per year, equivalent to 33 million kilometres driven.
Today (6th May), the companies said it aims to mainly deploy the trucks in the area around the Port of Antwerp and major logistics hubs in Belgium for intensive local and international transport.
Diederick Luijten, Vice-President Hydrogen Energy Northern Europe and CIS Countries for Air Liquide, said, “Fighting climate change is central to the mission of Air Liquide. With our significant hydrogen infrastructure and investments in Belgium, we are ideally positioned to bring solutions to decarbonise transports.
“We are convinced of the pivotal role that hydrogen will play in the energy transition, especially for heavy-duty applications. Air Liquide is proud to bring its 50 years of expertise in the hydrogen value chain to the HyTrucks project.”
“At the end of 2020, Colruyt Group also put the first 44-tonne hydrogen powered electric truck in Europe into service. So clearly, we believe fuel cell and hydrogen technology is a very promising zero-emission powertrain solution for transports and logistics. This HyTrucks project is yet another significant step towards zero emissions in transport.”
Jacques Vandermeiren, CEO of Port of Antwerp, concluded, “We want to give hydrogen every chance as an energy carrier, a basic element for chemistry and a fuel, and are therefore committing ourselves as an active pioneer in the hydrogen economy.
“As a world port and Europe’s largest integrated chemical cluster, we are an important link in this chain. Thanks to the collaboration between partners with the right expertise, we have all the assets we need to take further concrete steps in this regard and to set an example for other ports and regions.”
