Viritech awarded government grant for radical fuel cell HGV powertrain
Viritech will lead Project ICEBreaker to develop a 40-tonne hydrogen fuel cell truck that approaches weight-parity with a diesel equivalent.
Offering freight operators the same payload as current trucks is key to adoption of zero-emission vehicles
Other partners in the project are HORIBA MIRA and Intelligent Energy
Viritech is to lead a major project to develop and build a 40-tonne demonstration HGV which will be exhibited at the LCV CENEX event in September 2024. The £3 million project (50% funded by the Advanced Propulsion Centre) will showcase Viritech’s technology which radically improves the efficiency of hydrogen fuel cell trucks.
Viritech will be responsible for the unique energy management system. This uses the fuel cell as the primary energy source, with fast discharge/recharge batteries providing power for transient conditions (e.g. pulling away from rest).
The powertrain also features Viritech’s proprietary DC-DC Converter which simultaneously manages both the battery pack and the fuel cell. By combining the two separate DC-DC converters for fuel cell and battery pack, the system reacts far more quickly and saves considerable cost and weight.
The net result is a powertrain that is up to five tonnes lighter than a battery-electric equivalent, and approaches mass-parity with a conventional diesel truck. This transforms the economics of zero-emission freight logistics.
Intelligent Energy will be supplying its latest generation IE-DRIVE™ HD100 fuel cells, and HORIBA MIRA will be providing advanced digital tools (validation, digital twin, and modelling of Total Cost of Ownership) to ensure that the advantages of the Viritech concept are transferred to real-world usage.
Timothy Lyons, CEO of Viritech said, “The ICEBreaker program enables Viritech to move the development of its high-performance hydrogen powertrain technology to the next stage, by working with our partners HORIBA MIRA and Intelligent Energy to integrate a hydrogen fuel cell powertrain on a 40-tonne truck, and to demonstrate the huge benefits of this technology to manufacturers and their fleet customers.”
Notes to Editors:
About Viritech
Viritech is a British cleantech engineering company with the goal of becoming the world’s leading developer of hydrogen powertrain solutions.
Focussing on areas where hydrogen fuel cells offer immediate benefits, the company is currently developing hydrogen powertrains for trucks, vans and high-performance cars. This will be followed by applications for aircraft, marine and off-grid energy.
With an F1-derived engineering culture, focussed on agile innovation and the creation of valuable, licensable IP, Viritech’s business model is to design, prototype, test and license its technologies to global OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers. For more information, please visit viritech.co.uk
About the Grant Funding
The Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) collaborates with UK government, the automotive industry and academia to accelerate the industrialisation of technologies, supporting the transition to deliver net-zero emission vehicles.
Since its foundation in 2013, APC has funded 199 low-carbon projects involving 450 partners, working with companies of all sizes, and will have helped to create or safeguard over 55,000 jobs in the UK. The technologies developed in these projects are projected to save over 350 million tonnes of CO2, the equivalent of removing the lifetime emissions from 14.1 million cars.
With its deep sector expertise and cutting-edge knowledge of new propulsion technologies, APC’s role in building and advising project consortia helps projects start more quickly and deliver increased value. In the longer term, its work to drive innovation and encourage collaboration is building the foundations for a successful and sustainable UK automotive industry.