Scotland’s fleet of hydrogen-powered vehicles

The Levenmouth Community Energy Project (LCEP) is on track to establish one of Europe’s largest fleets of hydrogen-powered vehicles after the scheme’s lead partner, Bright Green Hydrogen ordered ten Renault HyKangoo vans from Symbio FCell and five Ford Transits on behalf of the project and its partners, Fife Council and Toshiba.

This is in addition to two refuse collection vehicles (RCVs) ordered earlier this year by Fife Council as part of a contract award to RCV manufacturer, Heil Farid at Hillend in Fife. Conversion of the Transits and the RCVs will be carried out by Liverpool-based ULEMCo.

The Levenmouth project, which secured £4mn from the Scottish government’s Local Energy Fund, aims to position itself as a global leader in clean energy through developing the Hydrogen Office Project in Methil into a world-class demonstrator of hydrogen applications generated from renewable sources. This includes creating a fleet of up to 25 hydrogen dual-fuel vehicles with refuelling points being installed in Methil and at Fife Council’s vehicle depot at Bankhead in Glenrothes.

The electric Kangoo vans would normally have an operational range of around 100 miles. But under the project, this range will be doubled through a supplementary tank of hydrogen being fitted to the vehicles that recharges the battery continually through a fuel cell device. The Ford Transit vans and the refuse vehicles are powered via a combination of hydrogen and diesel mixed in the engine manifold, with hydrogen stored in supplementary fuel tanks installed underneath the vehicle. 

Meanwhile, the north of England’s first hydrogen filling station has been opened by ITM Power at the Advanced Manufacturing Park in South Yorkshire, near the M1 motorway. The site consists of a 225 kW wind turbine connected directly to an electrolyser, 220 kg of hydrogen storage, a hydrogen dispensing unit and a 30 kW fuel cell system capable of providing backup power generation for nearby buildings. The filling station joins others already located in Hendon, Heathrow and Swindon and is the latest station opened as part of the £7mn hydrogen infrastructure investment strategy rolled out by the government.