Australia’s first hydrogen-fuelled garbage trucks to hit Queensland streets this year

Australian companies Pure Hydrogen and JJ Waste & Recycling say their partnership will see the hydrogen-powered garbage trucks hit the streets of south east of Queensland before the year is out.

On Monday, Pure Hydrogen announced its Binding Term Sheet with JJ Waste. The agreement will see the parties enter a “wet hire lease agreement” with Pure Hydrogen supplying the hydrogen-fuelled garbage truck, hydrogen and refuelling services.

Pure Hydrogen said it intends to use H2X Global, in which it is acquired a 24% stake, to “assist in the assembly of the truck.” (The same investment firm, Liberty Energy Capital, is also behind both H2X and Pure Hydrogen. Liberty is H2X’s primary shareholder and owns at 30% stake in Pure Hydrogen.)

Once the hydrogen fuel cell is installed, the company said it will do internal testing before providing the trucks to JJ Waste for the trial.

It expects that trial to commence later this year with the first trucks based on the Gold Coast.

Pure Hydrogen also claims its trucks will require less maintenance and drew on the volatile fuel prices as another advantage of transitioning to hydrogen.

It is worth noting that Pure Hydrogen does not supply exclusively green, renewable hydrogen though. The company actually owns three gas projects, including the Windorah Gas Project in the Cooper Basin, one of Australia’s most prolific onshore petroleum basins. The company’s hydrogen is coloured somewhere between blue to ‘turquoise’, meaning it is not zero emissions. 

JJ’s Waste has over 2,000 trucks and, if successful, the trial could result in transitioning the company’s fleet.

However these two are not only ones in Australia seeking to deploy hydrogen for waste collection. Last year, Singapore headquartered Hyzon announced its partnership with Superior Pak, a major manufacturer of waste collection equipment. Hyzon and Superior Pak currently have a commercial arrangement to create hydrogen-powered garbage trucks to also be rolled out in Queensland, specifically in Bundaberg on the mid coast.