JCB is moving to hydrogen power for all their big machinery. Here’s why.



JCB are developing new hydrogen powered engines for their bigger machines that work long hours. I visit JCB to find out why Lord Bamford is backing hydrogen as the fuel of the future for heavy machinery, including agricultural equipment and HGVs.

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35 thoughts on “JCB is moving to hydrogen power for all their big machinery. Here’s why.”

  1. It never hurts to explore new tech but this global warming is all bunk. Climate alarmists are all shook up over models that are not accurate and proven wrong. The real science shows there is no problem. Yet trillions are being spent on the sky is falling

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  2. Is India a safe partner in the transfer of technology from u k .
    Consider ther close friendship with Rasputin Russia.
    So I hope there are massive safe guard s on technical knowledge not leaking out to Russia

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  3. I have read that all the Hydrogen cars so far leak. I wonder how well JCB have tackled this. Really a problem in undercover environment's. If we only could get Hydride it would become a non issue. Just need a few particle accelerators.

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  4. I hope JCB have plans and can find the long term investment to be a vertical company to manufacture, distribute and utilise this alternative fuel. China have invested heavily around the world to monopolise on electrical energy so we desperately need a viable alternative to break this cartel. JCB have the British Bulldog spirit to do just that.

    Personally, I would keep the distinctive yellow which is their recognised trademark and have lime green as the highlights.🙂

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  5. Don't worry folks, I'm sure the British Government will find some way to bugger it up and we'll end up buying heavy plant machinery from India. Don't say I'm mad, you know very well they will.

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  6. Salute to all engineers who worked on this – on reducing NOx problems – but from another engineer's peer review perspective – what an utter futile waste of time. In a nutshell the absurdity if it runs like this;
    Let's use all this clean soalr (or wind) electricity to create green hydrogen so we can run hydrogen combustion engines – along the way we will lose 50% of original electrical energy in the green hydrogen production and another 50% loss in the combustion efficiency. So overall loss or electrical energy will be about 75% . i.e you ar eleft with only 25% of power you started out with going into actual mechanical work at the digger end.
    Now with a battery system you start out with maybe 10% transmission loss and 5% motor loss. You still have near 85% of original electrical power – not the 25% of hydrogen combustion.
    Hydrogen has some potential energy store mechnanism (though I'm for liquid air or massive sodium ion batteries) – but its use in motive applications shoudl be with fuel cell/ motor tech. Not combustion.

    p.s. BY the way – using the current price of hydrogen as a marker point is total nonsense. Nearly all hydrogen is produced today is as blue or grey – i.e. reduction process from carbon based gas – i.e . Green will be more expensive as for every kwh of hydrogen power at digger end you will need 4 x the amount of solar panels you would need to produce 1 kwhr electrical energy. So you will pay 4x the cost

    p.sps. ANother engineers take on a hdrogen V8 engine developed byToyota – and why it only makes sense if you want a nice V8 sound. If thats your thing then combustion ill be required for hydorgen tech
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJjKwSF9gT8

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  7. Oh dear this is not a good decision. Yet another company suckered into hydrogen. Has Toyota's dreadful misstep taught them nothing?? By all means research and maybe develop hydrogen vehicles, but the future is batteries. I know I'll get a lot of abuse for this, but look around. Where are the hydrogen vehicles? Nowhere; all EVs are battery powered. Do the same thing in 1, 5 and 10 years time. If JCB continues down this path they're finished.

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  8. I still don’t see it. Seems like a hell of a lot of hassle when you can just have a battery and one electric motor. Still all that servicing to do. The only advantage is the emissions.

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  9. 30 years ago if you came up with this idea ( people did ) you would be made to disappear ( people did ) .What has changed ? Is Big oil money no longer able to hire the hit men they used years back . One wonders how the govt will tax this type of fuel . They will for sure .

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  10. Very informative video. Hope JCB will sort out some standardization of parts for these new hydrogen vehicles so that those purchasing second hand equipment in future are able to service them and obtain parts. It's important also that those with older JCB diesel engine machines do not get forgotten and can continue to service and repair their vehicles. There are various interesting videos on YouTube regarding John Deere's attitude towards the right to repair.

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  11. A couple of points cross my mind: firstly, to what extent does hydrogen embrittlement affect the performance and lifespan of everything it comes into contact with? Secondly, let's say I swap the 100BHP petrol engine in my family car for a hydrogen powered equivalent. If my new hydrogen tank is the same physical size as the 50l (11 gallon) petrol tank, how many miles could I expect to travel? Or, to achieve the 500 miles per tank that I currently achieve, how big would the hydrogen tank have to be?

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  12. Amazing to see a company go so wildly far down the wrong path. It’s as if nobody learned from Toyota and every single last ever company who also tried to mess with this hopelessly inefficient fuel.

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  13. Maybe the intent will be a hydrogen fuel cell. Based on running a fuel such methanol across a platinum catalyst creating hydrogen to used immediately in an internal combustion engine. Direct methanal fuel cell is feasible, other tech I am doubtful of.

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