It is an electric truck, but is not supplied electricity either by fuel cells or overhead lines.
If the Chennai-based start-up, Aerostrovilos' plans come to fruition -- there is no reason to believe why they won't -- we could be seeing hydrogen getting into long-distance, heavy-duty transport faster than we now project.
This company, in which recently Tube Investments of India, picked up 25 per cent stake for Rs 3.4 crore, is testing a prototype of a system which involves a small gas turbine on board a truck that generates electricity. The turbine can be fueled by diesel, natural gas or hydrogen, but only for flexibility--the larger, long-term aim is for aiding hydrogen based transport.
The generator is run by a single shaft micro gas turbine engine. It is a highly fuel flexible IC engine, which can be run on any liquid fuels (biodiesel, bioethanol etc) or gaseous fuels (natural gas, biogas, landfill gas etc) or hydrogen, says the company's website.
Between the gas turbine, about 60 kW, and the motors sits a battery, to function as a buffer. With this architecture, Aerostrovilos has taken its design to the two leading Indian truck manufacturers -- Ashok Leyland and Tata Motors. Both will soon test Aerostrovilos' system, reports the Business Line newspaper.
This system is claimed to be superior to the conventional fuel cell powered trucks in two ways. One, it is far cheaper. A fuel cell costs $1,000 a kW; Aerostrovilos aims to be selling its contrivance for $100.
Second, while fuel cells require to be fed with 99.999 per cent pure hydrogen, the gas turbine says okay to even a fuel that has only 70 per cent hydrogen.
Testing will be completed in a couple of months. The, sometime around March next year, Aerostrovilos will go in for another round of funding, for something like $4million, to make the product market-ready.
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