[RM Motorsports]

Adani Enterprises Ltd. has deployed its first hydrogen truck to haul coal in Chhattisgarh, in what can be seen as the first step to do away with diesel trucks in mining logistics.

The truck, powered by hydrogen fuel cells, will be used to transport coal from the Gare Pelma III Block to a power plant operated by the Chhattisgarh State Power Generation Co. Ltd.

The truck can carry up to 40 tonnes and, equipped with three hydrogen tanks, offers a driving range exceeding 200 km.

Adani Enterprises, Ashok Leyland, and Ballard Power Systems have partnered to develop a hydrogen-powered truck (FCET) for mining logistics and transportation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5IoOdTDbjw

[frewper]

I still don't understand Hydrogen powered mobility. Specially trucks.

Hydrogen and the viability of its production and its transportation is still very complicated.

700-800 bar requirement on its storage tanks itself, raises eyebrows. For those who know what it means to deal with this kind of pressure and the complexity of dealing with equipment that can handle this kind of pressure, given a choice will run away from it.

Green hydrogen sources are still so few and is proven to be very difficult to achieve.

I am not an EV hater, but I accept the technology as the one that will have the least environmental impact going forward, such that my next car will be an EV, and mind you its not just because it saves the environment. Its because its very much practical and cost effective as well. Which needs to boil down to trucks to make logistics cheaper as well.

I just never find a good technical reason as to how a hydrogen powered vehicle can be better than any other source of energy. I will put my money on synthetic fuel rather than hydrogen. A hybrid diesel engine is honestly much better than hydrogen from a $ point of view.

And mind you the 5 min refuel theory is just crap, if the new source of energy is still expensive and then the infrastructure will cost you 50 times to setup and is 10 times more expensive to run. What is the point of such energy anyway.

All I can see is that anyone who has tried to promote hydrogen, would want to create an alternative fuel, that they can control so that 50 years from now, they look like the Sheiks of Middle East. All they have to do today is to spend pennies (comparatively) in the name of RnD which will anyways get adjusted in their massive PnL at the end of the year anyways.

[dwanderlustdrv]

Hydrogen is the universal fuel. It is the very stuff that powers the Sun!
True that we haven't yet figured out an efficient way to safely extract and store it to put it to everyday use but the day we do, it will mean free energy for everyone... literally!

Maybe today that day is 50 years away but at least it is not in the realms of Science Fantasy and one day, I do hope we get there and stop using fuels which destroy the ecosystem.

[NDK286]

Hydrogen IS the answer . I never liked EVs - the amount of mining, the cost of battery replacement, the range anxiety. In my opinion, the best current solution is a hybrid. Something which even with 0% charge, can still function on good old fossil fuels.

The challenges with Hydrogen will take time, of course. Instead of Billions for AI, perhaps billions to Hydrogen R&D ?

[Samarth 619]

Not an Adani fan here, but I think Hydrogen development must go on, because there is potential. Research in this area can probably derive some commercially viable solution in the future.

Also, the prime reason why I advocate Hydrogen is because some kinds of hydrogen are in abundance. Their omni-presence might lead to a decentralised world where there is no energy wasted in distribution, and everyone has access to its production.
The larger corporations might create it's machines in millions of units, and the smaller firms can produce and retail it.
It's a dream, a vision, and I don't know if it's possible, but we can dream nonetheless. But this will not be possible with any other fuel, except electricity which has its own limitations w.r.t battery production and pollution.

[Random_Alien]

Originally Posted by frewper

700-800 bar requirement on its storage tanks itself, raises eyebrows.

It's no big deal. In fact, dealing with extremely high pressures is easier than dealing with extremely low pressures. Take the L.P.G. cylinders for example. Sure, these things are dangerous but isn't transportation of every fuel dangerous?

Originally Posted by frewper

I just never find a good technical reason as to how a hydrogen powered vehicle can be better than any other source of energy.

Hydrogen, out of all the elements and compounds in nature has the highest calorific value. This means that on burning same amount of fuel, hydrogen is the fuel that releases the most energy.

Originally Posted by frewper

And mind you the 5 min refuel theory is just crap, if the new source of energy is still expensive and then the infrastructure will cost you 50 times to setup and is 10 times more expensive to run. What is the point of such energy anyway.

Who doesn't like quick refueling? Nobody wants to wait 30 mins just to gain an additional 100km of range, especially in commercial setting where the faster the logistics transportation, the better it is.

Coming on to the cost to set up the ecosystem, let's take the example of Jio. They setup their own 4g and 5g towers in india. It took very heavy investment initially but look at it know, when the ecosystem is developed, it starts paying itself back. Then there comes a time when people cannot imagine living without it. Every technology in its early days requires a ton of capital and R&D. But if it has sufficient potential, it will pay itself back.

The daring people who come forward to fund the tech of the future, because of their bold moves in very nascent stages, will always gain an early-mover advantage. And that should be considered the fruit of their wise decision rather than effort to gain monopoly in future.

As steve jobs said, people don't know what they want. Corporations have to present a product that people will want to have.

All that aside, let's at least appreciate the effort to move to sustainable/renewable fuel that does not cause as much damage to the environment as compared to fossil fuels. At least they are going somewhere and learning from their moves, not sitting still and waiting for someone to present a solution.

[professortarzan]

Originally Posted by Random_Alien

Take the L.P.G. cylinders for example. Sure, these things are dangerous but isn't transportation of every fuel dangerous?

Pressure aside, aren't hydrogen tanks more prone to leaks than conventional liquified fuels? I admit that I haven't done any research, but I have just come across this argument quite often.

Hydrogen, out of all the elements and compounds in nature has the highest calorific value. This means that on burning same amount of fuel, hydrogen is the fuel that releases the most energy.

I believe the calorific value is calculated for a given mass. But from what I gather, the problem would be volume, as in size of fuel tanks. Which is why energy density becomes a very important factor.
In this very case, claimed range of such a big truck is 200 KM. In comparison, conventional diesel powered trucks offer at least thrice the range even at the lowest ballpark. No trucker is ever going to consider it as an option in given state. Of course, there will be improvements in future, but how much remains a big question.

All that aside, let's at least appreciate the effort to move to sustainable/renewable fuel that does not cause as much damage to the environment as compared to fossil fuels. At least they are going somewhere and learning from their moves, not sitting still and waiting for someone to present a solution.

As someone who deeply appreciates engineering, this is definitely a significant milestone. But in my biased opinion, hydrogen as a commercial fuel will just not fly. I am not saying it never will, but it would take exemplary innovation for it to be successful. There are way too many downsides for the utopian outcome shown on paper.

Fuel cell powered vehicles and EVs have both been in their infancy in 2000s. But as we know, EVs have comfortably overtaken their competition and have became mainstream, with much more potential to grow. There is probably a reason why scientists and engineers around the world chose to focus on one fuel over the other. I think we should rather put our efforts in making EV industry cleaner and improving efficiency of solar/wind energy.

PS: I am just presenting my view from what I know, I could be completely wrong and may be missing the bigger point. Obviously. Adani and Ambani have experts at their disposal who know what they are doing.

[Thilak29]

Originally Posted by dwanderlustdrv

Hydrogen is the universal fuel. It is the very stuff that powers the Sun!.

Originally Posted by NDK286

Hydrogen IS the answer .

Originally Posted by Samarth 619

I think Hydrogen development must go on, because there is potential.

Gentlemen, Hydrogen has many inherent limitations, while I understand it is an aspirational fuel (mostly because of fancy ideal of water dripping out of tail pipe).

To begin with, Hydrogen gas has a low energy density by volume, requiring large and heavy storage tanks to achieve a comparable range to petrol or electric vehicles. Storing hydrogen as a compressed gas at high pressures poses technical and safety challenges. The small size of hydrogen molecules also makes it prone to leakage. Also, Hydrogen is highly flammable, requiring stringent safety measures in its handling and storage. Coming to business viability, producing hydrogen is energy intensive. Transporting and storing hydrogen, especially as a gas, requires significant energy for compression or liquefaction, leading to further energy losses and higher cost. Currently, producing hydrogen, especially "green hydrogen" from renewable sources, is more expensive than generating electricity from the same sources.

[dwanderlustdrv]

Check this out, this is something that was being researched in India way back in 1993:

In the BHU experiment, hydrogen is passed through hollow aluminium cylinders packed with a storage alloy known as mischmetal pentanickelide. The gas and the alloy combine to produce mischmetal pentanickelide hydride. A pipe carries the hydrogen from the hydride-filled tank to the engine through a special, BHU-designed injector. After the hydrogen burns, the water vapour produced is emitted as droplets through the exhaust pipe.

https://www.downtoearth.org.in/envir...bstitute-31288

[Ravi Parwan]

Slightly off topic, but the future of hydrogen is not burning it, but using it in a fuel cell.

The best efficiency of an ICE is only about 20%. An Hybrid can take the efficiency upto 35-40%.

Compare that to a Fuel cell, which offers above 50-60% efficiency. I believe the economics of fuel cell is the biggest hurdle to its adoption. Once they solve that, we could have cars that have no tail pipe emissions, no heavy batteries to lug around, 5 min recharging, the convenience of an ICE car, performance of an EV.

Coming back to the topic, these type of prototypes will help confirm the use case and even help identify the limitations of using an alternate fuel type. It will provide valuable real life data on using this technology.

In the process, they also provide some positive publicity for the companies involved. So I am all in for having such experiments.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Ravi Parwan

Slightly off topic, but the future of hydrogen is not burning it, but using it in a fuel cell.

It really depends on the size of the engine and or application.

Rule of thumb, the bigger the engine the better to run it of hydrogen, rather than a fuel cell.

All big, high HP applications, eg very large trucks, ships and so burn hydrogen.

Jeroen

[atmosphere]

Tell you what guys, from my experience driving a Toyota Mirai for past few years, this thing is way way superior that standard ev. This drives like a dream absolute bliss. Yes the hydrogen fueling is somewhat hit or miss, but just like what elon did with his superchargers during the early phase of tesla if toyota or others put their might on r&d ,science this out for a better hydrogen delivery. Then this is killer tech.

[neon115]

Do we know how is this hydrogen sourced ? Is it Grey, Blue or Green.

Even with Green hydrogen, if coal fueled power plant was used for the Electrolysis it defeats the purpose.

If the goal is to be carbon neutral or Carbon negative, Green Hydrogen using renewable electricity is the only option.

[maddy42]

Originally Posted by neon115

Do we know how is this hydrogen sourced ? Is it Grey, Blue or Green.

Even with Green hydrogen, if coal fueled power plant was used for the Electrolysis it defeats the purpose.

If the goal is to be carbon neutral or Carbon negative, Green Hydrogen using renewable electricity is the only option.

Adani is building one of the worlds largest solar plant in Khavada with 30GW capacity to source power to source the hydrogen.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com.../107683231.cms

In 2 years time they have operationalised 4GW of power. Their solar panel plants capacity is being mainly utilised for their internal consumption.

https://renewablewatch.in/2025/05/15...da-in-gujarat/

There was a Leyland Reliance deal for Hydrogen trucks. Curious to know the status of the same.

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/ta...gen-truck.html

Just a thought, if we can think of the various angles, a company in the deep end of the mining sector would definitely have thought through of ways to color green on their new projects.

[Kulkarni2411]

I have had personal experience with hydrogen vehicles (Toyota SORA [bus] and MIRAI [sedan]) in Japan. These vehicles provide range comparable to hybrids and better than petrols. The bus has V2L for emergencies, and (at least in Tokyo) there are enough hydrogen stations. The ride, while silent, has vibrations, which is difficult to get used to. However, considering that most electricity (at least in India) is generated via fossil fuels, hydrogen might just be feasible here. However, the cars would need to be bigger. Case in point, the Mirai is strictly a 4-seater. the middle "seat" in the 2nd row has a huge hydrogen tank under it in a vertical orientation that seems like a huge transmission tunnel. It also has the addictive instant torque to the electric motors powering the thing.