Rheintal-Transporte to employ Loop fuel cell technology in its heavy trucks

The fuel cell technology will resolve the range anxiety of battery-powered trucks.

Loop Energy and Rheintal-Transporte (Germany low-carbon heavy-duty transportation solutions for freight forwarding services) agreed to develop and supply heavy-duty hydrogen fuel cell range extension solutions for battery electric trucks in Europe.

Rheintal will use Loop’s eFlow™ fuel cell modules for the extended driving range in its battery-electric trucks. Rheintal is to order eFlow™ fuel cell modules for around 20 zero-emission hydrogen trucks and trailers over the next two years.

Rheintal will also get full access to Loop’s end-to-end technical support and access to a network of pre-qualified channel partners specialising in hydrogen-electric power train design, supply of various sub-system components and hydrogen fuel infrastructure.

Wolfgang Normann, Principal of Rheintal-Transporte, said, “Over the last two years, Rheintal has evaluated a range of zero-emission vehicle options and determined that pure battery-electric solutions alone will not meet either our operational demands or range requirements.”

He further added that the eFlow™ fuel cell range extender system benefits from a battery-electric system coupled with a hydrogen fuel engine to resolve its range limitation.

George Rubin, Chief Commercial Officer of Loop Energy, said, “This partnership will help pave the way for enabling a heavy-duty vehicle with a total-cost-of-ownership that is comparable to traditional solutions and with similar operational characteristics to diesel engines.”

Early this month, Loop Energy also signed a strategic cooperation deal with Morello Giovanni Srl (Italy heavy material handling equipment company) for the development and manufacture of heavy-duty hydrogen-electric material handling equipment. Loop agreed to supply its eFlow™ fuel cell modules for integration into hydrogen-electric heavy-duty tractors designed for heavy leading in heavy industries such as steel mills. Both companies aim the design completion in H1:2021, with the construction and deployment of the first ten heavy-duty tractors to start within two years.

Ethan Mandel

Ethan is the special correspondent for Europe covering the hydrogen industry for H2 Bulletin. Please click on the email icon to contact me via email or follow me on social media. I am reachable on Phone: 02081237815
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