JCB.
From the UK comes JCB, the worlds 3rd largest construction equipment company.

These machines have been iconic sights on most building sites throughout the world for decades especially in the UK.

But the world is not the same as it was 10 years ago, 20 years ago, certainly not 78 years ago when JCB introduced their first model, an agricultural tipping trailer made from World War 2 scrap.

The world today is going through a dynamic shift in how it powers it’s industry. Due to concerns about global warming, warranted or unwarranted, the world has decided to wean itself off of fossil fuels as much as possible.

The race is on within industries across the world to come up with new, cleaner solutions for powering our transportation, manufacturing and construction industries.

In December 2020 JCB Unveiled the worlds first hydrogen powered 20 tonne excavator.

The result of a £100 million investment and over 100 engineers working around the clock for about a year from their Power Systems in Derbyshire in the UK. Since then, more than 50 of their hydrogen combustion engines have rolled off the production line.

Their new hydrogen engine is a 4.8 litre, 4 cylinder engine that can put out the same torque and power as their similarly-sized DieselMax 448 engine. There is virtually no compromise whatsoever which is essential for industry wide adoption of these new engines. In fact, because hydrogen has an energy density roughly 3 times greater than diesel it doesn’t require much effort to create a bang and force the piston down which makes these engines more efficient than their diesel counterparts.
The cost of these hydrogen machines is expected to be around 15% more than a traditional machine which is not a lot. When you compare that to a hydrogen fuel cell machine the cost could be multiple times that of the machine and for an electric equivalent it’s about 70 - 100% more expensive according to JCB. Due to their similar design and footprint of the diesel engines they can even be retrofitted into older vehicles. Currently though, they are being used in their medium sized machines. Their loadall telehandler and their backhoe loader.
One of the priorities for JCB was that their new engine had to completely mimic the performance of their diesel engines. The new engine had to be a simple transition so that operators wouldn’t have to worry about relearning how to operate their machines. The new hydrogen engine does just that. It has the same power, same torque curve, same engine speeds, which negates the need for things like different gear ratios and hydraulic pumps.

The loadall and the backhoe loader have the same size tanks as the diesels and can comfortably be used all day long which for these sized machines is around 10 hours a day. This was an essential criteria for JCB. Instead of the diesel tank there are 5 cylindrical tanks each with a capacity of 1kg of hydrogen.

One of these refuelling trucks can refuel up to 16 backhoe loaders.

Instead of taking a traditional diesel engine and retrofitting a hydrogen fuel cell to it, like they experimented with in the 220X, they have redesigned the entire combustion process to allow it to run solely on Hydrogen. Because hydrogen is a gas and not a liquid, the engine had to be almost completely redesigned to make it work. Hydrogen has a much lower density than diesel so it’s injected into the engine at much lower temperatures and pressure.

This video is about JCB's new hydrogen engine and what it took JCB to develop. Could this new technology be the future of heavy plant equipment for the construction industry? Will this help tackle climate change? It's an amazing piece of engineering with huge implications. Hydrogen fuel cells haven't lived up to the hype and are problematic and expensive to retrofit. A completely new engine that runs solely on Hydrogen. Zero carbon, zero emissions. Potential for green hydrogen. A game changer? Time will tell. Hydrogen 2023.

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Footage in this video has either been obtained with permission from the original copyright owner or used in compliance with section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976 where allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research.

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