The H2Cool Prelude project is researching how hydrogen and fuel cell technology can be used in truck refrigerated transport in the future to achieve positive effects for the environment. The aim of the project is to develop concepts for avoiding fossil fuels and reducing or even eliminating harmful emissions: Greenhouse gases, air pollutats, noise.
A discontinued model: freight transport using fuel from fossil energy sources, because hydrogen is considered the fuel of the future. The project is investigating many aspects that are essential for the development and successful implementation of hydrogen technology for refrigerated transport. The project significantly supports environmentally friendly and resource-saving technology development and testing. H2Cool Prelude thus contributes to counteracting climate change, environmental pollution and excessive resource consumption. The results of H2Cool Prelude will subsequently be realized in an implementation project with the retrofitting of a refrigerated truck.
“The application of fuel cell and hydrogen technology for refrigerated transport is an extremely innovative research approach, which at the same time offers a particularly high potential for application solutions,” said Dr. Nils Meyer-Larsen, project manager, ISL. “Also, the power supply of the refrigeration unit by the fuel cell of the tractor or the self-sufficient operation of the refrigeration unit by hydrogen while the trailer is parked contribute to comprehensively avoiding environmentally harmful emissions.”
“Since 2008, FRoSTA AG has been intensively addressing the issues of climate and CO2. By using refrigeration systems with heat recovery and other measures, we have been able to achieve significant savings in consumption and CO2 emissions at all plants in recent years,” discusses Thorsten Heitland, Head of SMC Logistics, FRoSTA AG. “With H2Cool Prelude, we want to further improve our carbon footprint and become more sustainable when transporting our goods.”
Ulf Brüssel, Managing Director, Brüssel & Maass Logistik GmbH, added: “We want to change the economy by acting in an ecologically and socially sustainable way. We emit 4,000 tons of CO2 every year – this is one of the key levers we want to tackle. Currently, there are no production-ready hydrogen trucks available – that’s why, as a partner in H2Cool Prelude, we want to take up this aspect and be there from the start when it comes to alternative drives with hydrogen.”
The consortium includes the research institutes ISL and Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences, the company akquinet port consulting GmbH and the association H2BX – Wasserstoff für die Region Bremerhaven e.V. Within the framework of the project, the forwarding company Brüssel & Maass Logistik GmbH and the well-known frozen food company FRoSTA AG as well as the company Clean Logistics, which converts existing trucks to climate-friendly hydrogen hybrid propulsion, will be involved as end users for the development and validation of the technical, ecological, economic as well as legal and safety-relevant concepts.
The project is funded by the Applied Environmental Research (AUF) program of the Bremen Senator for Climate Protection, Environment, Mobility, Urban Development and Housing with money from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
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