ULEMCo bags OCC’s hydrogen fuel cell project

ULEMCo, a developer of hydrogen fuelled vehicle, together with a number of partners has been awarded £3.9m by government, matched by industry to a total £7.9m, for a major project with Oxfordshire County Council (OCC) to develop solutions for hydrogen powered vehicles.

The ‘HYER Power’ project will develop a hydrogen fuel cell range extender module that will integrate into electric vehicles used for specialist applications such as ambulances, fire engines and street sweepers.

The funding has been awarded through the Advanced Propulsion Centre Collaborative Research and Development programme, in support of ambitions to build an end-to-end supply chain for zero-emission vehicles in the UK.

OCC will provide the customer input, trialling and dissemination, and the work will lead to a manufacturing-ready, zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell-based range extension system for electric drivetrains. Other partners in the project with ULEMCo include: Technical Services (UK) Ltd for cooling capability, Altair Ltd for vehicle energy system modelling, along with Emergency One for the fire engine solutions.

The zero-emission range extender used for HYER Power will apply existing, proven fuel cell technology from the Toyota Mirai, and will demonstrate how zero emission vehicles can be used in a wide range of specialised and challenging settings.

Key outcomes of the project will include a production-ready zero-emission ambulance as a result from the work already completed by ULEMCo under the ZERRO project, alongside a fully working prototype fire pumping appliance and an HGV road sweeper.