Hyzon Motors, a supplier of hydrogen fuel cell-powered commercial vehicles, said that it had delivered its first 55-ton milk truck to Transport Groep Noord, a carrier providing transport for multinational dairy company Royal FrieslandCampina.
The 55-ton vehicle, a HyMax 450 Puller built on a Class-8 DAF truck chassis, is expected to have up to 520km range with motor power up to 550 kilowatt capacity.
Transport Groep Noord plans to operate the truck on specific routes in the north of the Netherlands where the first hydrogen-powered milk delivery took place last week.
Transport Groep Noord operates 25 trucks for FrieslandCampina, leading decarbonisation in its industry. This order lays the foundation for FrieslandCampina to convert its entire fleet to zero-emissions vehicles.
With branches in 38 and brands in over 100 countries, as well as over 20,000 employees, FrieslandCampina is one of the largest dairy cooperatives in the world. It has set itself a goals of CO₂-neutral production by 2050. As an intermediate step the dairy company wants to reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by more than a third by 2030.
“Over five years ago, FrieslandCampina started using liquid natural gas as a cleaner fuel and we successfully [encouraged construction of] filling stations all over the Netherlands to supply this type of fuel,” said Hans Wieleman, the company’s milk logistics manager. “Now we try to do the same with hydrogen.”
For applications in which payload is critical, such as milk, beverage, and water transport, hydrogen-powered vehicles are ideal for zero-emissions transport, Hyzon believes, because they can carry two to five tons more than battery electric trucks due to the lower weight of hydrogen fuel systems.