About the project

Life and Grab hy!
Development and demonstration of 2 garbage trucks on hydrogen!

Garbage trucks are mainly operational in densely populated urban areas, in which there are strict criteria concerning emissions and environmental standards. There is an increasing need for zero emission solutions to comply with this upcoming access restrictions imposed by cities as part of air pollution reduction strategies.

Garbage truck on hydrogen are a promising solution to meet this challenge.

They are zero emission, largely silent and and at the same time they provide the equivalent flexibility of diesel fuelled vehicles, as battery vehicles struggle to meet the range requirements. So garbage trucks on hydrogen are meeting the requirements of as well municipalities, waste collection institutions and local residents.

Strong consortium

That’s why WaterstofNet, E-Trucks Europe, Baetsen Groep, Cure Afvalbeheer and Hydrogenics initiated the Life and Grab Hy! project.

Life ‘n Grab Hy!, short for ‘LIquidation of Full Emission and Noise by GARBage trucks with HYdrogen’ is a by Life funded European demonstration project. Two garbage trucks are converted to hydrogen and were demonstrated in different cities in the Netherlands and Germany (Eindhoven and Velhoven and Hürth, near Cologne).

E-Trucks Europe, built both hydrogen hybrid electric garbage trucks. The trucks are owned by waste collection companies Baetsen en Cure. Hydrogenics GmbH provided integration of and services for the fuel cell. WaterstofNet coordinated the project and the demonstrations and was responsible for communication and dissemination.

The Life project was very useful for the project partners, as well as the partners involved in the demonstrations. They all gained a lot of experience and practical knowledge. All are taking the next steps in their contribution to a zero-emission garbage collection in the future.

Because of Covid 19, fewer demonstrations could be organized than initially planned.

Nevertheless, the experiences gained in the project were very valuable for various stakeholders and a good leverage for larger European projects around hydrogen refuse trucks, such as H2RenT (Nl), Revive and Hector.

Results (March 2021)

• 2 trucks developed and built
• Full homologation received
• 26 months of operation (2 trucks)
• 2 workshops for maintenance of the hydrogen
garbage trucks realised. This were the first workshops for hydrogen garbage trucks in Europe.
• Substantial growth of demand and multiplied production for E-Trucks Europe (to some 50 units
per year)
• New construction facility at E-trucks Europe (to be able to realise the increased demand)
• Increase of employment
• Significant GHG emission and noise emission savings (see impact below)
• Worldwide attention, information requests and
demonstration visits
• Cooperation with 3 other European refuse collection truck projects, inspired by the LIFE ‘N Grab HY!- project (H2RenT, Revice and Hector)

Impact

• 255 days of operation in 5 cities (Veldhoven, Best and Son, Einhoven, Hürth) in 2 member states (the Netherlands and Germany)
• More than 24.000 kms driven
• Reduction of 12 500 litres of Diesel
• Reduction of 45 ton CO2, 20 kgs of hazardous Particulate Matter, 60 kgs of NOx and 93 kgs of CO
• a reduction of operational noise level with -4 dB(A)
• Positive impact on the working conditions of the operators of the garbage truck
• Better air quality ensuring the public health in urban areas, when deployed at larger scale

The Life 'N Grab Hy! activities have received funding from the European Union’s LIFE Programme under the Grant Agreement nr. LIFE14 ENV/BE/000415

Layman's report

At the end of the project a final Layman report was prepared about the experiences in the project and the expectations for hydrogen garbage trucks in the future. Click on the image for the report in issuu (brochure format), click on the title for the report in pdf.

 

After Life Plan

What after the project?  You find the ideas in the After Life Plan (available in Dutch and in English)

After Life Plan Nl

After Life plan ENG