By: GenH2 Staff
Read Time: 3 minutes

Interest in clean transportation is growing exponentially. As evidence, look at the growth of the Advanced Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo, a four-day fleet focused conference that took place May 1-4, 2023, at the Anaheim Convention Center in California. The conference presented the trends, infrastructure solutions and technologies that are transforming clean commercial transportation. Just a little over a decade ago, what was a smaller event of roughly 2,500 stakeholders has grown to an attendance of over 10,000 industry leaders and fleet operators.

The 2023 ACT Expo in Anaheim, CA was even more impressive than the previous year, as original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and commercial transportation technology providers showcased the latest products and solutions designed to decarbonize transport and pave the way to a cleaner future.

The number of heavy-duty vehicles, hydrogen-powered trucks, and the latest in hydrogen storage tanks and OEMs that filled the massive show floor was evidence that the pace of technological advances is increasing exponentially.

As Silver Sponsor of the event, GenH2 exhibited its ground-breaking LS20 Mobile Liquid Hydrogen System, an end-to-end liquefication and storage system. The company’s CEO, Greg Gosnell, also spoke on one of the event’s Hydrogen Workshop panels.

During the Hydrogen Workshop sessions, it quickly became apparent that the focus of manufacturers, distributors and off-takers was on the long distance and heavy-duty cycle capabilities of liquid hydrogen. Industry indicators of the increasing interest in liquid hydrogen fuel were:

Daimler Trucks AG noted that their latest LH2 fuel tank would hold 90kgs to increase mileage; and
A large fleet operator indicated that hydrogen would be their choice of renewable fuel since their fleet can’t afford any downtime.
Existing limited loss LH2 tanks have been experiencing boil off and needed a recovery solution. Reliquefication was discussed as a solution with many distributors and station owners. This is considered an affordable alternative to purchasing brand new tank technology.

The Hydrogen Supply Chain: Production, Distribution, Storage session at which Gosnell spoke explored the focus for the future of hydrogen fueling stations and featured industry leaders from California Gas Company, Zero Emission Solutions, Trillium – A Love’s Company, Pilot Company and Linde Inc. Several important takeaways from the session included:

Fueling Stations will need to meet the demand of potentially providing multiple fuels in the future.
Truck Stops are very familiar with dispensing different fuels such as Diesel and Gasoline, therefore providing H2 and LH2 may be necessary.
Liquid Hydrogen storage will be needed and beneficial as it offers a smaller footprint than gaseous storage.

The workshop sessions on hydrogen also featured micro sessions which explored additional facets of challenges and solutions. Here are a few more takeaways from presentations on the following topics:

Fleet Operations: Hydrogen’s Evolving Role in Transportation

They are moving to LH2 since liquid hydrogen offers fewer components, is lighter in weight and has less wheelbase impact.
One large fleet operator has already tested some H2 trucks with limited downtime for maintenance, better distances and faster fuel times than their BEV equivalent.
A Transit Authority leader discussed how they are adding 33 FCEV busses to their fleet, including the fueling infrastructure. It was stated that the duty cycle of their fleet required little downtime to refuel.

Staying Ahead of the Curve: Emerging Vehicle Availability

330 FCEV Hyundai Busses are already in operation in South Korea.
Hyundai presented a Hydrogen Commercial which was very telling about what they are focusing on. Based on the letter “H,” it tied together Humanity, Hydrogen and Hyundai.
50 Hyundai Xcient FCEV trucks are currently transporting goods in Switzerland.
General Motors presented their mobile charging stations that were comprised of hydrogen fuel cells powered by hydrogen to charge BEV’s via a mobile platform.
Nikola stated that their Hydrogen Trucks will complete testing at the end of 2023 and expect to be in production shortly thereafter.

At the close of the conference, ACT announced that its 2024 conference will be even bigger and better. Next year the show will be held in Las Vegas, which proves that the hydrogen hype cycle will continue to hit new heights.