UCR’s Georgios Karavalakis and Wayne Miller, a founding scientist and principal investigator for the alliance. (College of California, Riverside)
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Two U.S. universities have teamed up with auto business heavyweights together with Daimler Truck North America to type the Hydrogen Engine Alliance of North America (H2EA-NA).
The College of California, Riverside and College of Michigan-led alliance intends to advertise the function of hydrogen instead gasoline supply for inner combustion engines, together with over-the street vans, the alliance stated March 3.
“Our aim is to leverage hydrogen as a low-carbon answer that may improve the efficiency and sustainability of inner combustion engines,” stated Georgios Karavalakis, co-director of H2EA-NA and professor of chemical and environmental engineering at UCR.
“Hydrogen-powered ICEs can present a long-term, dependable answer, significantly for functions the place battery-electric or gasoline cell automobiles could not meet client efficiency necessities,” he added.
California & Michigan universities type hydrogen engine alliance. Learn extra ⬇️ @UCRBCOE #gasoline #zerocarbon https://t.co/1kxHmKtBjC
— UC Riverside (@UCRiverside) March 3, 2025
Karavalakis and Wayne Miller, additionally a professor of chemical and environmental engineering at UCR, will function co-directors of H2EA-NA alongside André Boehman, a Michigan professor of mechanical engineering.
The preliminary business companions are DTNA, engine producer Cummins and auto part producers Mahle, Forvia and Tenneco.
DTNA — the mum or dad firm of U.S. truck manufacturers Freightliner and Western Star — doesn’t have any hydrogen ICE vans, however mum or dad firm Daimler Truck is testing quite a lot of automobiles with powertrains that use the gasoline in ICE engines.
The world’s largest truck maker is also advancing its hydrogen gasoline cell electrical truck ambitions.
The Mercedes-Benz GenH2 truck is fueled with liquid hydrogen. (Daimler Truck by way of X)
Testing is underway in Europe of each Mercedes-Benz GenH2 Truck and the corporate’s sLH2 subcooled liquid hydrogen. Among the many fleets testing the truck are Amazon, Air Merchandise and Holcim. Amazon ranks No. 1 on the Transport Matters High 100 record of the biggest logistics corporations in North America.
Daimler Truck and accomplice Linde Engineering hope to determine sLH2 as a typical refueling normal for hydrogen-powered vans.
Germany-based Daimler Truck additionally has realized that sourcing hydrogen, and inexperienced hydrogen specifically, is important to gasoline widespread adoption of the vans. In January 2024, the corporate signed a cope with Abu Dhabi to discover sourcing inexperienced hydrogen from the Gulf state; shipments may start by 2030. Later in 2024, the corporate additionally inked a cope with Japan’s Kawasaki Heavy Industries.
Inexperienced hydrogen is produced by splitting water into its part parts utilizing renewable electrical energy relatively than utilizing petroleum merchandise because the supply.
Cummins, in the meantime, plans to supply a hydrogen inner combustion engine configuration of the X15 heavy-duty truck engine as a part of its Excessive Effectivity, Decrease emissions, A number of fuels initiative.
The varied choices could have a typical base engine. Under the top gasket, the engine variants will largely have comparable elements, however above the top gasket, elements will differ based mostly on gasoline sort.
