The Anonymous Widower

Lord Bamford: We’re Too Mesmerised By Musk — Here’s Why I’m Building A Hydrogen JCB

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

This is the sub-heading.

JCB’s Lord Bamford has spent £100m on a hydrogen engine. Tesla’s tech won’t suit everyone, he tells Jim Armitage

These are my thoughts.

The Need For Zero-Carbon Construction Equipment

Construction sites can be dangerous places and in addition to the obvious dangers, there are hidden pollutants in the atmosphere on sites.

Health and Safety will surely demand an improvement in air quality on construction sites for the protection of the workforce and nearby residents.

If JCB can produce zero-carbon construction equipment, then whether it is electric or hydrogen, this will be to their advantage.

High Speed Two And Low-Carbon Construction

High Speed Two is the UK’s biggest construction project and these posts on this blog, talk about low-carbon construction.

• HS2 Reveals Dramatic Carbon Saving With Ambitious Modular Design For Thame Valley Viaduct
• HS2 Smashes Carbon Target
• HS2 To Trial New Building Method Which Could Provide Carbon-Free Energy
• New HS2 Pilot Project Swaps Steel For Retired Wind Turbine Blades To Reinforce Concrete
• World First As HS2 Trials Dual-Fuel Piling Rig On London Site

If High Speed Two are thinking this way, how many other projects will be built in a similar way?

Decarbonising Cargo Handling

It should be noted that JCB are involved in Freeport East at Felixstowe/Harwich.

Ports will be the sort of workplaces, where all vehicles should be zero-carbon, to protect the workforce. Some of the container handling machines are large and would be ideal for hydrogen.

Decarbonising Agriculture

JCB also make tractors, like the Fastrac and other equipment for agriculture. As they often work around people, hydrogen could be much better.

New Markets

Zero-carbon engines will result in new products for new markets.

Lord Bamford is on track to create valuable new markets for his diggers and other equipment.

Hydrogen-Powered Land Speed Record

JCB already hold the land speed record with the JCB Dieselmax, at over 350 mph.

This paragraph from Wikipedia describes the powerplant.

The car is powered by two specially-tuned versions of the production JCB444 powerplant, developing up to 750 brake horsepower (560 kW) each (over five times the power output of the production version with 90 psi (6 bar) of boost) and featuring four cylinders and 5 litres of displacement, accompanied by two stage turbochargers, intercooler and aftercooler.

I believe that getting that amount of power out of a production diesel engine, shows that JCB’s combustion engineers could do the same for a hydrogen-powered vehicle.

August 6, 2023 - Posted by AnonW | Business, Hydrogen, World | Decarbonisation, Freeport East, Health and Safety, High Speed Two, Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engine, JCB