Associated British Ports (ABP) is the first UK port operator to trial a hydrogen-fueled tractor in its container terminal at the Port of Immingham. This joint pilot project received funding from ORE Catapult through Innovate UK’s Hydrogen Innovation Initiative (HII), following funding of initial feasibility from the Department for Transport’s Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition.

The Terberg hydrogen terminal tractor is being tested at the UK’s largest port by volume of tonnage, alongside a mobile hydrogen filling station provided by Air Products.

This demonstration is a key activity in the bid to decarbonize port operations, ABP said, and an important step in the creation, delivery, and use of hydrogen at the Port of Immingham. Alongside this, HII is developing market, technology, and economic assessments of hydrogen technologies to support the larger UK industry with H₂ adoption.

The project has been a collaboration between ABP, Terberg, Air Products, and the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult.

Terberg began developing its hydrogen fuel cell tractor in 2018, and in October 2020 started testing of its first concept at United Waalhaven Terminals in Rotterdam.

YT203-H2

The hydrogen terminal tractor is based on Terberg’s fully electric YT203-EV. The YT203-H2 is the result of joint development between Terberg and Dutch hydrogen fuel cell system developer zepp.solutions, a tech scale-up specializing in hydrogen fuel cell systems for various applications.

The YT203-H2 is equipped with four 150 liter (350 bar) hydrogen fuel tanks (600 liter total) containing 14.4 kg hydrogen. This is suitable for a full day operation in heavy-duty applications.

The hydrogen tractor is designed to provide the same or more tractive power than diesel powered terminal tractors, but with zero emission and without the noise of combustion engines.

In September 2022, zepp.solutions introduced its new 150 kW fuel cell system for heavy-duty applications. Multiple units can be connected in parallel to serve applications up to megawatt scale. The system is available in different configurations for rooftop, engine bay or machine room applications. The new X150 offers a significantly decreased cost per kW and a 25% bump in power density compared to the 50 kW zepp.Y50 module.