Scania develops fuel cell based refuse truck

Scania is developing a fuel cell refuse truck together with Renova, a waste handling company in western Sweden.

The truck will feature a fully electrified powertrain as well an electrified compactor.

“We are highly interested in gaining more experience of fuel cells in actual customer operations,” says Project Manager Marita Nilsson, Electric Powertrain Technology at Scania. “Fuel cells constitute a promising technology in the needed decarbonisation of transports.”

Refuse trucks often operate in residential areas in the early hours of the morning. With reduced emissions and noise, electric vehicles are especially attractive in these areas. Renova and other waste handling companies have previously carried out trials with electric refuse trucks but this will be the first with fuel cells.

“Electrification using fuel cells fuelled by hydrogen is a highly appealing alternative for heavy commercial vehicles such as refuse trucks,” says Hans Zackrisson, Head of Development at Renova. “The trucks benefit from all the advantages of electrification while maintaining some of the best aspects of fossil-fuel operations, namely range, hours in service and payload.”

The project is being implemented in cooperation with the Swedish Energy Agency and Stockholm's Royal Institute of Technology and the fuel cell refuse truck is expected to be delivered in the end of 2019/beginning of 2020.

Scania has previously announced that it is developing fuel cell technology in cooperation with the Norwegian food wholesaler Asko, which has opened its own production plant for sustainable hydrogen fuel. Scania is delivering four distribution fuel cell trucks with a range of 500 km to Asko.