The Anonymous Widower

JCB Finds Cheap Way To Run Digger Using Hydrogen

The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on The Times.

This is the first two paragraphs.

An operational hydrogen combustion engine developed in Derbyshire could speed up the shift towards zero-emissions transport.

JCB, the construction equipment manufacturer, said that the engine would be capable of powering heavy machinery and vehicles without producing any carbon dioxide.

As they have just modified one of their own production diesel engines to run on hydrogen, this sounds like a major breakthrough of the largest kind!

The caption on the picture says this.

JCB says that the technology could be applied in trucks, vans, trains, buses and even large cars.

What about small cars?

Or perhaps, that market will be left to Aquarius Engines, which I wrote about in New Hydrogen Engine Design Unveiled To Overcome Reliance On Fuel Cells.

You wait months for a major breakthrough in hydrogen propulsion to come along and then two ideas come along in one day.

The article gets better as you read it fully, which I suggest you do.

• It appears, that development only started last July.
• The engines are based on their current JCB diesel engines.
• Emissions include water, no CO2 and practically zero levels of NOx.

The article says this about costs.

It is thought that the hydrogen engines will cost about £10,000 each; costs will be kept down by using the same production lines and many of the same components as diesel engines. By comparison a prototype hydrogen fuel cell system, which is being adapted for a 20-tonne excavator as part of another JCB trial, will cost about £100,000. Batteries needed to power such a machine would probably cost in the region of £160,000, the company said.

When you consider that family member; Joe Bamford owns Wrightbus, I would expect that you’ll see a development of these engines coming to a bus route near you!

Conclusion

I have made money backing developments based on the properties of fluid flow at the small end of gaseous flow.

There are some weird effects there, which are not taught in A-level physics.

Have JCB found how to apply them to create the ultimate zero-carbon power unit?

I’m certainly not ruling it out!

May 22, 2021 - Posted by AnonW | Hydrogen | Hydrogen-Powered Buses, Hydrogen-Powered Vehicles, JCB, Wrightbus