At CONEXPO-CON/AGG, running in Las Vegas from 14-18 March, JCB handed an international debut to its super-efficient hydrogen engines
The engines, which are the product of a UK£100mn (approx. US$121mn) project, are a zero-carbon emissions solution for construction and agricultural equipment. A team of 150 engineers is working on the pioneering initiative and more than 50 prototypes have already been manufactured in the UK engine plant.
JCB chairman, Anthony Bamford, commented “The JCB engineering team has made enormous strides in a short space of time to develop a hydrogen internal combustion engine. As the first construction equipment company to develop a fully working combustion engine fuelled by hydrogen, I’m delighted we are now able to present this technology on the international stage.”
Prototype JCB hydrogen engines are already powering backhoe loader and Loadall telescopic handler machines. JCB has also made a major breakthrough in proving the wider appeal of hydrogen combustion technology by installing one of the super-efficient hydrogen engines into a 7.5 Mercedes tonne truck. JCB has also unveiled its very own designed and built mobile refuelling bowser to take the fuel to the machines. The bowser has enough hydrogen gas to fill 16 hydrogen backhoe loaders and is able to be transported either on the back of a modified JCB Fastrac tractor or on a trailer.
Bamford added, “The JCB engineering team has gone back to first principles to completely re-design the combustion process to work for hydrogen. In doing so they have achieved two major things: secured JCB’s place in history as the first construction equipment company to develop a fully working combustion engine fuelled by hydrogen and steered us towards the production of a landmark 50 hydrogen combustion engines.”
