Hydrogen electric QUANTRON QHM FCEV AERO
Quantron AG
As the world races to decarbonize for a livable climate future, few sectors face greater disruption than global trucking. The empire built on the diesel engine now faces an existential reckoning.
“We’re seeing two disturbances colliding simultaneously,” Michael Perschke tells me. “There is a fundamental shift from internal combustion energy to batteries and fuel cells. But also a reimagining of entire supply chain operations in the process.”
Perschke is the CEO of Quantron, a German startup on the front lines of pioneering hydrogen solutions to replace diesel in heavy transportation. They are marketing electric-powered buses and hydrogen fuel cell trucks, which they believe are ideal for heavy, long-range transportation.
I met him at the Web Summit in Lisbon, where the company announced a partnership with Oilinvest Group (a major player in the European oil industry, known for its Tamoil and HEM brands) to build a hydrogen-based refueling infrastructure to power electric fuel cells. Heavy trucks. The partnership has led to the creation of a new joint venture, HEMTRON.
The scale of the transformation Perschke envisions is astonishing. Given that the modern economy relies on trucks to transport almost all goods across vast distances, completely overhauling this distributed infrastructure while maintaining reliability is an extremely complex challenge.
First of all, route planning must take into account new scope constraints. “Today you don’t have range anxiety. You fill up a diesel truck and go as long as you want with 1,200 or 1,600 liters of diesel. Tomorrow, you’ll need to operate your assets with range anxiety in mind. So you need to re-plan your routing,” Perschke noted.
Energy companies must quickly build filling stations for electrons and molecules. Currently, supercharging infrastructure for electric trucks in Europe is almost non-existent, posing significant challenges to reliable route planning.
“There is nothing. There may be a few stations but by chance rather than by design.”
The situation is improving. In Sweden, around 130 charging stations are scheduled to open in 2023 and 2024, and a new network of six 300 kW ultra-fast electric vehicle chargers was recently opened in Germany along the logistics corridor between the Rhone and the Alps. But clearly we are still in the very early stages.
Infrastructure for heavy-duty hydrogen trucks is also in its infancy. This is one of the reasons for signing the partnership with Oilinvest. Oilinvest subsidiaries operate approximately 2,450 filling stations under the Tamoil and HEM brands in Europe; This network, along with third-party and newly established sites, will provide a basis for the spread of zero-emission fuel cell electric vehicles.
The economic implications of this shift are also important. Perschke highlights the increasing costs associated with green transportation (including the implementation of new technologies, infrastructure development, and the transition to clean energy sources), saying: “You have to have a customer who has to understand that green transportation does not come for free.” He must also Be willing to pay more. Total operating cost of ownership per kilometer will become more expensive.” This reflects a broader need to educate the market about the value and cost of sustainable practices.
However, the environment cannot afford inaction. The numbers attest to the enormous carbon footprint of trucking. In the United States alone, medium- to heavy-duty trucks emitted more than 417 million metric tons of CO2 in 2021. In the same year, heavy-duty trucks and buses accounted for 27% of the approximately 740 million tons of CO2 emitted in the European Union. . The European Union has set ambitious targets to improve the situation, aiming to reduce CO2 emissions from trucks by 90% by 2040.
Quantron aims to lead the charge in reducing these emissions.
“We are moving very early. We have the first truck suitable for hydrogen fuel cells for long distances in Europe. We are the only truck that can tow a standard trailer tomorrow,” Perschke said. Describing their work in hydrogen fuel cell technology, he explains that Quantron has uniquely “optimized the engineering” of existing diesel trucks by replacing the engine and tank with hydrogen fuel cells, while keeping the chassis intact.
For heavy transport, Quantrone believes hydrogen has major advantages over batteries. Refueling takes minutes, not hours. In terms of cost, the batteries can compete with personal cars and daily commuting.
“I personally think that for daily personal mobility, the greatest amount of needs can be met with electric vehicles. Because at the end of the day, a hydrogen vehicle makes sense if you have to run it for a really long distance, if you really want to avoid downtime charging and if you have access to hydrogen Fairly cost competitive.”
There are different schools of thought on this matter. For example, a 2022 study by the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research estimated that electric trucks can still maintain a competitive advantage, even over long distances. “In 4.5 hours, a heavy-duty truck can travel a distance of about 400 kilometers, so a practical range of about 450 kilometers would be sufficient, if high-power fast charging for battery-powered electric trucks were widely available,” the lead researcher said.
Ultimately, there may be a role for both technologies. “Neither is a silver bullet. You need different solutions based on terrain, climate and grid capacity,” says Quantron’s CEO.
For example, battery range decreases while transporting heavy loads up mountain slopes in freezing weather. Fast shipping suffers from congestion when queues form. Hydrogen avoids these issues.
Through coordinated efforts spanning infrastructure, operations and vehicle technologies, Berschke remains confident in the ability of goods to continue to flow reliably in a zero-emissions future. Achieving this will require shared commitment across public, private and consumer spheres. All of them have a long-term role in decarbonisation.
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