Latin America’s first Green-Hydrogen-Recruit Fuel Truck hit the road in Chile, which is a milestone for the country Decurbonization effortThe semetrler truck will start a one -year test phase in September 2025, which is loading Walmart Chile The Quilicura distribution and the Greater Santiago Metropolitan region completes operations and delivery. The data collected from the test phase will provide a road map for Walmart and Its companion To scale Hydrogen fuel cell truck in Chile.
But as Walmart and the rest of the countries work to meet their decarbonization goals in the next decade, the challenge lies in the construction of the infrastructure required to support hydrogen-managed ground transport in a geographically challenging environment.
Green-hydrogen infrastructure challenges
Although chile Abundant Wind and solar resources make it a prominent place for production Green hydrogenThe country has so far developed a national network of technical operators and fuel stations will need to overhall ground transportation with fuel-cell trucks.
Two years ago, Walmart Chile’s Qualicura Distribution Center became First distribution plant In Latin America to produce green hydrogen and work with hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. The US $ 15 million initiative included 200 lead-acid battery-powered forklifts swapping for hydrogen fuel cell versions. Now, that distribution center has the ability to produce a new truck to produce enough green hydrogen to fill fuel twice daily, Ignasio gomezWalmart Chile’s Supply-Series Innovation and Technology Manager. (Editor’s note: The author conducted an interview with Gomez in Spanish and provided translations for this story.)
Truck built by Fichi technologyLocated in Foshan, China was bought as part of a public-private partnership of $ 6.15 million Hidarul Technological ProgramHidrohaul launched the major government and industry players together in 2024 as a four-year project to pursue hydrogen-operated fuel cell vehicles. Chile Production development corporation Put $ 3.45 million in funding for the program. Gomez says that globally, Walmart has committed to decarbon the operation by 2040 by 2040.
Gomez says, “Hidruhal is taking the first step of this strategy, which is testing us the country’s first green-hydrogen truck under real-life circumstances.” “It is allowing us to gather the lessons learned to score this technique later,
The expected range of the truck is 750 km and can draw 49 tonnes while holding 75 kg of hydrogen fuel. But “no truck is ever going empty in the station,” Louis FultonDirector of the Energy Futures Program of the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis. To be on a safe side, Fulton says that long-hall truck drivers usually avoid diverting below the value of a fourth tank fuel. It puts a practical range for the fechi truck at about 560 km.
Chile extends more than 4,200 km from south to north, and Walmart operates around 400 stores across the country under several subsidiaries. The remote southern region of Punta Arenus is home to the company’s southern store and is located about 3,000 km from Quillicura, currently the only fueling source of the truck. Despite the company’s plans to expand green-hydrogen production to all its sooner nine Most networks including distribution centers, Panta Arenas across the country, are still out of the border.
Calculus that determines that hydrogen fuel -filled stations should change the number of trucks, based on the capacity of each fueling center, and trucks regularly travel how far to travel to distribute their payload. In California, his team of Fulton and researchers determined that 15 to 20 fuel-filled stations in the state would offer both geographical coverage and hydrogen volume to handle 5,000 heavy-charge trucks. State goes to the United States Fuel cell vehicle finance,
From north to south, Chile is almost four times the California state. Gomez says that Walmart is considering installing at least four hydrogen-fuel dispenser at its distribution centers to provide adequate fuel capacity. To start at least, the truck will remain in the central Chile to complete its test routes.
“The scheme is to carry real goods load from the supply stores within the Quilicura Distribution Center for trucks and Metropolitan, Valparso and O’Higins areas,” Gomez says.
Global deployment of hydrogen trucks
Chile joins a handful of other countries that have deployed hydrogen fuel cell trucks for long -term trucking including the United States, China, Many members of South Korea, Japan and European Union. China leads packs in terms of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, with A Targeted 25,000 According to the Chinese government, expected on the roads by the end of this year. This figure is still a relatively small part of the total heavy duty vehicles operated in the Chinese market.
Globally, high costs have limited the deployment of green-hydrogen-operated fuel cell trucks on industrial scale. While Chile can perform better on this front than the United States and other European countries, because it Relationship with chinaThe country’s hilly and remote area is a unique obstacle for truck performance.
“Hills are a big deal,” says Timothy lipman of The University of California, Berkeley, who works with Fulton on research related to rollouts of fuel cell trucks in California. “If the topography is completely flat, you are going to achieve a long range and if you are actually going to the steep hills then less fuel is required.” Extreme warm and cold weather can also affect fuel-cell truck batteries and reduce efficiency over time, Lipman says.
Thus, so far, Chile has adopted local hydrogen power in its efforts to phase out the sale of carbon-ecological heavy-charge vehicles. By 2045Nevertheless, when the country invests more resources in increasing its green hydrogen market, Fulton note that other low emission technologies, such as electric batteries, may be less possible.
“You can only focus on so many techniques,” says Fulton. “So if a country or state creates a strong commitment for one or two technologies, eventually, perhaps it becomes difficult to think about other people.”
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