PowerCell Sweden AB will participate in REVIVE to develop and operate a refuse truck with fuel cells for Renova AB, western Sweden’s leading environmental enterprise within recycling and waste management. Renova’s end customer, the City of Gothenburg, wants to increase testing of fuel cell powered refuse trucks. The truck and its operation will be partly funded by the EU project REVIVE which has an objective to accelerate the development of hydrogen fueled refuse trucks in Europe.
Both PowerCell and Renova have recently been approved as project partners in the EU project REVIVE, Refuse Vehicle Innovation and Validation in Europe, which will partly fund the fuel cell integration and operation of the new refuse truck.
Bart Biebuyck, FCH JU Executive Director: “Over the years, the FCH JU has supported the development of fuel cell components for transport applications. We are glad to see these efforts coming to fruition and another European stack supplier joining the REVIVE project with its innovative products for heavy-duty applications.”
REVIVE represents the second fuel cell powered refuse truck in the Renova vehicle fleet. “We are strong believers in electric refuse trucks using fuel cells and hydrogen which have obvious benefits when it comes to driving range and payload capacity, two decisive factors for extensive electrification to happen”, said Hans Zackrisson, Head of Development at Renova.
For the City of Gothenburg, the vehicle is meaningful as well. “Gothenburg wants to take the lead in the introduction of new and more sustainable technologies and the collaboration with Renova provides us with a great opportunity to test fuel cell and hydrogen based zero emission solutions under real circumstances”, said Peter Årnes, Strategist for the Gothenburg Department for Sustainable Waste and Water.
The fact that Sweden’s first two fuel cell powered refuse trucks are being tested in Gothenburg, where PowerCell has its headquarters, was positively greeted by Andreas Bodén, Director of Sales at PowerCell. “It’s obviously very pleasing that both the City of Gothenburg and a local company like Renova want to contribute to the introduction of more sustainable vehicles for waste handling”, said Dr. Boden.
