Swedish truck manufacturer Scania is developing a fuel cell refuse collection truck together with Renova, a waste handling company in western Sweden.
According to Scania, while Renova and other waste handling companies have previously carried out trials with electric refuse trucks but this will be the first with fuel cells and will feature a fully electrified powertrain as well as an electrified compactor.
The manufacturer explained that because refuse trucks often operate in residential areas in the early hours of the morning reduced emissions and noise from electric vehicles are especially attractive in these areas.
“We are highly interested in gaining more experience of fuel cells in actual customer operations,” said Project Manager Marita Nilsson, Electric Powertrain Technology at Scania. “Fuel cells constitute a promising technology in the needed decarbonisation of transports.”
Hans Zackrisson, Head of Development at Renova added: “Electrification using fuel cells fuelled by hydrogen is a highly appealing alternative for heavy commercial vehicles such as refuse trucks.
“The trucks benefit from all the advantages of electrification while maintaining some of the best aspects of fossil-fuel operations, namely range, hours in service and payload.”
The project is being implemented in cooperation with the Swedish Energy Agency and Stockholm’s Royal Institute of Technology and the fuel cell refuse truck is expected to be delivered in the end of 2019/beginning of 2020.
Scania has previously said that it is developing fuel cell technology in cooperation with the Norwegian food wholesaler Asko, which has opened its own production plant for sustainable hydrogen fuel. Scania is delivering four distribution fuel cell trucks with a range of 500 km to Asko.
