Hydrogen fuel-cell trucks to be used in zinc giant’s Queensland operations from 2022

Hyzon Motors has confirmed Ark Energy Corporation, the Australian subsidiary of the world’s largest zinc, lead, and silver producer, Korea Zinc, has definitively confirm its order of five Hyzon 154-tonne hydrogen trucks to use at its Sun Metals zinc refinery in Townsville.

Under the order, Hyzon is obligated to deliver the trucks to Ark Energy by the end of 2022. Moreover, Hyzon expects to assemble the trucks here in Australia, saying this would align with its “plans to boost local Australian production of fuel cell vehicles.”

The project is expected to be the first in the world to use Hyzon’s 154-tonne hydrogen trucks.

How the trucks will be used

Ark Energy will lease the trucks to its sister company, Townsville Logistics, which will deploy them in triple (three-trailer) road-train configurations as part of their short-haul fleet, operating on a 30km loop from the Port of Townsville to the Sun Metals zinc refinery owned by the group, Hyzon said.

The trucks will be fuelled by Ark Energy’s own hydrogen refilling station SunHQ Hydrogen Hub which is at the site of Sun Metals’ zinc refinery. The green hydrogen will produced via an electrolyser powered by its 124 MW co-located solar farm.

Hyzon

While Hyzon is headquartered in the United States, its CEO and co-founder, Craig Knight, is Australian and has been paying attention to the oft-overlooked Australian market for fuel cell technology.

The company claims to be the world’s only supplier of ultra-heavy-duty hydrogen trucks with in-house fuel cell technologies. It is certainly the only company supplying this class of vehicle in Australia in the next 18 months.

“Hyzon is the only hydrogen commercial mobility company that can meet our needs,” Ark Energy CEO Daniel Kim said in a statement. “Our fuel cell trucks need to be 154-tonne rated, built to Australian Design Rules and delivered by the end of next year. That was the ultimate basis for placing this order.”

In July, when the order was first announced though not confirmed, Kim said Hyzon Motors was the only original equipment manufacturer (OEM) interested in supplying the Australian market in the next 18 months.

“Hyzon is committed to developing its next-generation 370 kW fuel cell systems (equivalent to 500 horsepower); this project will help advance the growing market for this application in Australia’s ultra-heavy transport sector as well as other adjacent industries including the mining, rail and marine sectors,” Hyzon added in its statement.

While Hyzon has the heavy-truck class covered, Australian startup H2X is targeting the lighter class of transport vehicles over the next two years.

Ark Energy Corporation MoU with Townsville Ports

Earlier this month, Ark Energy signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Port of Townsville to complete a feasibility study into its plan of exporting 200,000 tonnes a year of Queensland-made renewable hydrogen to South Korea.

While it is currently testing out its producing capability servicing the new fleet of trucks with green hydrogen needs from SunHQ, the ultimate goal, Kim has said, is to produce enough to green hydrogen to export to the company’s main base of South Korea.

Korea Zinc, the owners of Sun Metals and Ark Energy is currently Queensland’s second largest single-site energy consumer. In November of 2020, it pledged to power its entire operations with 100% renewable electricity by 2040, with an interim target of 80% by 2030.