The US Army is in the midst of a demo of a new renewable H2-powered rescue truck

The US Army is testing a new type of zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in the form of a rescue truck with a massive 1,500-mile range between refuelling.

The key now is to find a source of renewable H2 to keep its operation clean

The main thing that the fuel cell vehicles require to be considered truly clean is green hydrogen.  The reason is that while the trucks themselves operate without producing greenhouse gas emissions, unless a clean source of the H2 is used, then the production of the fuel will still involve carbon emissions.

To accomplish this goal, another test is also underway, which is in the form of a mobile electrolyzer on wheels that is solar powered.  That hydrogen producing machine is still a prototype, but when it is fine tuned and successful, it could make a substantial difference to the way military operations function, particularly in remote locations.

Clean energy for rescue fuel cell vehicles

The fuel cells vehicles produce the energy they need using hydrogen and a chemical reaction with the ambient air, involving a catalyst.  The only emissions produced are in the form of water vapor. Aside from that, no other emissions are produced by the operation of the truck itself.

The Department of Defense is taking great care regarding the incorporation of battery electric vehicles into its procurement processes.  There has been a substantial decision to make between battery or fuel cells for powering the trucks.

As such, there has been a substantial amount of development and testing underway in recent years.

Electric vehicles have shown to have substantial potential for certain vehicles when it comes to replacing fossil fuel-powered trucks. For instance, they have zero emissions and operate quietly. 

That said, fuel cell vehicles typically have a larger range, are lighter, are still quiet, and can operate in areas away from an electrical grid.

Improving disaster response capabilities in emergency situations

“When we came up with the idea, there [were] the California wildfires going out west, there were a couple of hurricanes in the southeast and we knew that big swaths of the U.S. were having these natural disasters [and] that customers didn’t have power, water and were just devastated,” explained Nicholas Josefik, technical lead on the H2Rescue truck project.