Cummins To Demonstrate Hydrogen's Potential To Reduce Carbon at Major Transportation Show

Global power leader Cummins Inc. will unveil this month a concept truck powered by an internal combustion engine running on hydrogen during one of the world’s major transportation trade shows.

The demonstration truck, powered by Cummins’ B6.7H engine, will demonstrate the opportunity for medium-duty truck applications to reduce carbon emissions using internal combustion engines (ICE) as the company seeks to play a leadership role on the world’s climate challenges.

The truck will be on display at the IAA Transportation exhibition, Sept. 20 to 25, in Hanover, Germany. The event brings together opinion leaders, decision-makers, visionaries and experts in logistics and transportation to see the latest the industry has to offer.

“The H2-ICE concept truck on show at IAA puts Cummins at the forefront of this rapidly emerging internal combustion engine technology using zero-carbon hydrogen fuel,” said Alison Trueblood, Cummins Executive Director – On-highway Business Europe.

“The introduction of H2-ICE powered trucks over the shorter term can help develop the hydrogen fuel infrastructure to bridge the way forward for the wider adoption of fuel cell electric vehicles,” Trueblood added. “In this way, hydrogen engines and fuel cells are complementary technologies, working together to drive the hydrogen economy forward.”

Under Destination Zero, the company’s product decarbonization strategy, Cummins is bringing to market the low- and no-carbon technologies like fuel cells expected to power the future for those customers who are ready. In addition, the company is working to reduce the carbon produced by more established technologies, such as internal combustion engines, to provide customers with lower-cost options to reduce carbon.

Cummins believes it is critical to cut carbon emissions as much as possible today, using both new and existing technologies, rather than simply wait until new technologies gain widespread adoption.

The Cummins H2-ICE project used a Mercedes-Benz Atego for the concept truck, a versatile and widely used vehicle for multi-drop distribution haulage. The hydrogen conversion work did not compromise truck performance, cargo capacity or payload.

The B6.7H hydrogen engine will be joined in the Cummins display at IAA by the X15H hydrogen engine, offering the potential to reduce carbon emissions to long-distance trucks commonly found on interstate highways in the U.S.

A heavy-duty truck featuring a high-capacity hydrogen fuel storage system and powered by the X15H is estimated to offer a potential operating range of over 1,000 kilometers or more than 620 miles.

The next generation 15-liter engine follows the 6.7-liter in being derived from Cummins’ fuel-agnostic platform offering the benefit of a common-base architecture that can be optimized for a particular low- or no-carbon fuel.