Announcing the news today (27th April), Hyzon said each hub is expected to convert organic waste in nearly every form, constituting almost all the waste produced globally, into locally produced, renewable hydrogen for Hyzon’s zero-emission commercial vehicles.
The hubs are planned to be built at landfills and are expected to power garbage trucks as well as other classes of heavy-duty trucks.
The first hubs are planned to be built in California before expanding into the rest of the US and globally.
“Hyzon aims to be one of the first companies to supply our customers with a hydrogen fuel cell truck, including our own garbage trucks, at total cost of ownership (TCO) parity with diesel-powered commercial vehicles,” said Craig Knight, CEO and co-founder of Hyzon Motors.
“With our leading fuel cell technology, we are working closely with partners to scale up hydrogen production in the US and globally.
“In Raven, we see a technology that is highly efficient in waste conversion, scalable and mobile, enjoying a low cost of hydrogen and most importantly, capable of producing the quantity of green hydrogen that our vehicles will need.
“100 hydrogen hubs could convert over 5,000 tonnes of waste per day and power over 10,000 trucks.”
Hyzon said the first hub is planned to be built in the San Francisco Bay Area, and is expected to be commissioned in 2022.
How will it work?
Each hub will contain Raven’s patented steam/CO2 reformation process, a non-combustion, low atmospheric and catalyst-free process that converts all types of solid waste into renewable syngas and then into green hydrogen with costs that are similar to hydrogen produced using hydrocarbons, so-called “grey” hydrogen.
In California, the hydrogen produced through Raven’s process is expected to benefit from the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), allowing Hyzon to sell hydrogen to third parties at extremely competitive prices.
The initial hubs are expected to process 50 tonnes of solid waste daily, per hub, and are expected to yield up to 4.5 tonnes of renewable green hydrogen each, enough hydrogen from each hub to power 100 heavy-duty commercial vehicles.
Future hubs may be able to scale to five times larger to accommodate sites with higher hydrogen requirements, Hyzon said.
“Our planet produces over 5.5 million tonnes of municipal solid waste and 16.5 million tonnes of agricultural waste every single day,” said Matt Murdock, CEO of Raven.
“Theoretically, if we were to convert all of this waste, we could produce over two million tonnes of renewable hydrogen per day – enough to satisfy over 25% of total global oil demand.
“Currently, most waste is dumped into landfills or burned, which is extremely polluting to both air quality and other parts of our environment.”
Murdock continued, “Over two decades have been spent developing Raven’s completely combustion-free process that can input any kind of mixed carbonaceous waste, dependably converting that into consistently hydrogen-rich syngas which then produces more hydrogen per ton of waste than other processes.
“Raven can also easily process natural and renewable gases alone or combined with solid waste.
“Most importantly, we are excited to roll out this leading technology with Hyzon, one of the fastest growing hydrogen mobility companies in the industry.”