HWR Hydrogen launched their first dual fuel heavy truck, ‘blue hydro’, the first such in Australasia, in Invercargill in late March 2023 and invited Sally Brooker and Michael Bennington along to demonstrate and talk about hydrogen with the public.
In Europe this retrofit technology by CMB Tech, which enables combustion of a mixture of hydrogen and diesel, reduces emissions by about 40% with no loss of performance, payload or range. Because the truck can still run 100% diesel it won’t get stranded by the current lack of a hydrogen refuelling station network in NZ.
HWR own about 1300 trucks nationwide. They also own the Allied Petroleum refuelling network and will open their first hydrogen refuelling station in Gore in September this year. So HWR are addressing both sides of the chicken and egg problem. By early 2024 they will have 10 duel fuel trucks on the road.
Have a look at the articles on 1News (9 April 2023), Stuff (31 March 2023), and the ODT (1 April 2023).
