PowerCell Sweden AB will participate in an EU project that will develop and operate a refuse truck with fuel cells for Renova AB, western Sweden’s leading environmental enterprise within recycling and waste management. Renova’s end customer, the City of Gothenburg, wants to increase testing of fuel cell powered refuse trucks. The truck and its operation will be partly funded by the EU project REVIVE.
PowerCell has previously participated in a joint project with Renova, Scania, truck body manufacturer JOAB and the Royal Institute of Technology, to develop a fuel cell electric refuse truck which uses a fuel cell to power an on-board electric motor and refuse compactor. That project was partly funded by the Swedish Energy Agency.
Hydrogen fuel cell trucks have a comparable driving range, refuelling time and payload capacity to diesel-powered trucks while producing less noise and emitting only water vapor which are welcomed advantages for refuse trucks operating in residential areas with early morning collection times.
Both PowerCell and Renova have recently been approved as project partners in the EU project REVIVE, Refuse Vehicle Innovation and Validation in Europe, which will partly fund the fuel cell integration and operation of the new refuse truck.
The project spans over four years and supports the introduction of fuel cell refuse trucks in several cities across Europe. The overall aim of the project is to speed up the introduction of zero emissions solutions for refuse trucks. Refuse trucks operate on fixed routes and return to their starting point at the end of each shift, which eliminates the requirement for an extensive network of hydrogen filling stations and makes the vehicles ideal for testing fuel cell technology.
