The engine that puts an end to diesel – It works with hydrogen and reaches up to 4,800 cc.

The energy transition in the transport sector is of paramount importance, even more so than the car, and new technologies and alternatives are constantly being presented for the future traffic of heavy vehicles, planes and ships.

You see, there are many technical limitations in transport vehicles that do not allow or have the ability to use only electric drive systems.

For this reason, some heavy vehicle manufacturing companies are already proposing alternative solutions to reduce the use of diesel, not including electrification. And one of them is the burning of hydrogen.

In this climate, JCB introduced a 4-cylinder hydrogen engine with a capacity of 4.8 litersdesigned mainly for heavy-duty vehicles and especially for agricultural and construction machinery.

Accomplishing investment of 114 million eurosJCB assembled a team of 150 engineers to build 50 prototypes of this new engine at its UK factory.

The specific JCB engine consumes hydrogenpresenting an alternative way of using it compared to what we are used to from the automotive industry, as it does not use electric motors with hydrogen cells that convert hydrogen into electricity.

According to the company, among the reasons for choosing to burn hydrogen in engines, rather than cells, is the simplicity of internal combustion engines, the ease and cost of converting vehicles.

JCB announced that has already converted a Mercedes-Benz truck to run on hydrogen, with the mechanical work taking only a few days. In this way opens the door to productionnot only of hydrogen fueled zero-emission engines and vehicles, but also in the transformation of existing ones.

On the other, hydrogen requires, among other things, production and transport infrastructures that are currently not fully developed. However, it is expected that in the coming years there will be a great demand for hydrogen, which will be produced mainly from renewable energy sources and will favor the development of hydrogen “ecosystems” for its proper production and distribution.

Finally, the JCB announced that it has covered the needs of its vehicles for hydrogen refueling, developing a tank that can be mounted on a tractor or trailer to carry up to 16 full hydrogen tanks for the operation of agricultural and construction industry vehicles.

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