The UK Alliance is providing £30 million to promote the hydrogen fuel cell heavy truck scheme

The UK government's Department for Transport (DfT) and Innovate UK are jointly providing more than £30 million ($36.4 million) to support a programme that aims to have 30 hydrogen fuel cell heavy goods vehicles (HGVS) on UK roads by 2026.

The project, called Hydrogen Polymerization UK Logistics (HyHaul) and led by Protium, plans to bring together participants in green hydrogen production, hydrogen logistics, hydrogenation and infrastructure, and fuel cell HGVS to roll out these vehicles along a major transport corridor along London to South Wales.

The project plans to launch 30 hydrogen vehicles in partnership with transport companies in 2026, with a maximum capacity of 44 tons. The alliance says it has even more ambitious plans to deploy 300 such vehicles by 2030.

In the first phase, alliance partners include ReFuels' CNG, Scania, NRG Riverside and Reynolds Logistics, and the trucks will be supplied by a number of original equipment manufacturers, with initial carriers including EV Cargo and FSEW.

Chris Jackson, CEO of Protium, said the company hopes to remove barriers to adoption by providing vehicle Oems and fleet operators with operational data on the performance of first-generation fuel cell trucks. "Our project provides a commercially viable solution for reducing emissions from long-haul transport, a notoriously difficult area of the sector to reduce," he said. It also marks an important milestone towards Protium's ambitious goal of reducing CO2 emissions by 1 million tonnes per year by 2030."

Earlier this year (2023), Protium started producing hydrogen at its Pioneer One project in South Wales and has been refueling buses in the region since then.

Andrew Reynolds, CEO of Reynolds Logistics, said: "Reynolds Logistics believes HyHAUL will be an excellent platform to demonstrate the use of green hydrogen to reduce emissions in the HGV industry."

Geoff Tomlinson, managing Director of the FSEW, said: "Our main goal is to have our fleet operating at net zero emissions by the end of 2024. Currently, with a hybrid electric and compressed natural gas truck, we have achieved 50% of our goal. Adding these hydrogen-powered trucks is a real game changer for us and for the industry."

The funding is part of a 200 million pound ($242.4 million) investment by the British government to roll out up to 370 zero-emission trucks across the country.

Transport Minister Richard Holden said: "Freight and logistics are at the heart of our economy and it is right that we should celebrate this industry and get the recognition and support it deserves. From promoting zero-emission technologies to attracting future generations of talent to the industry, we are working hard to drive innovation, create jobs and grow the economy by building a brighter, more innovative future for one of our most important industries."