Kelowna looking at hydrogen options to decarbonize its heavy-duty vehicle fleet

Kelowna looking at hydrogen options to decarbonize its heavy-duty vehicle fleet

The City of Kelowna is looking at ways to reduce its carbon footprint by potentially converting some heavy duty vehicles to a dual blend of hydrogen and diesel fuel.

And, it’s seeking input from those in the industry to try and make it happen.

The city issued a Request For Information this week for proposals from industry leaders in dual-fuel technology to support a phased-in conversion of its fleet.

Infrastructure operations manager Geert Bos told Castanet News,

I am desperate to find ways to decarbonize the city’s equipment,

“We have many different pieces of equipment, dump trucks, municipal graders and tractors and, unfortunately commercially in the realm of vocational equipment, there is really nothing available or in the pipeline to reduce carbon emissions or zero carbon vehicles that can be used and deployed through our municipalities.”

Electric vehicle manufacturers are focused on transportation vehicles and not heavy duty.

We all know this is the right thing to do, so how do we get there if industry is not focused on us?

“We are looking for folks that have the technology that can basically be bolted on to existing equipment. We are asking them if they have technology that could benefit us to give us carbon reduction.”

Bos says the city’s fleet gets renewed every seven to 15 years and instead of waiting until everything hits the end of its life cycle, the city is looking at vehicle conversions earlier in that cycle.

He said,

Hyrdogen seems to be one of the transitional fuels we could use, and say we have equipment that is three years old, we can convert it and while not being able to go to zero emissions, we most certainly can achieve reduced emissions for the remaining life-cycle of that vehicle,

“Then, hopefully when that vehicle is at the end of its life there will be other options such as hydrogen combustion that Cummins is working on.”

The city is looking at converting four dump trucks in the first phase and potentially another 10 trucks in a second phase.

It would also have to work with hydrogen fuel producers since the only outlet in the city at Harvey and Spall is for passenger vehicles only.

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Kelowna looking at hydrogen options to decarbonize its heavy-duty vehicle fleet, source

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