MIT Startup LNK Energies Says It Can Turn Diesel Trucks Into Cheaper Hydrogen Haulers

Diesel powers shipping and agriculture, and with prices hitting record highs in recent weeks, governments have been releasing fuel from stockpiles to contain the fallout. LNK says its conversion offers a longer-term alternative for the heaviest trucks. “If you look at total cost of ownership of a Class 8 truck, it’s 13% cheaper than diesel,” Alexis Huynh, LNK Energies’ chief technology officer, told TechCrunch. Class 8 is the heaviest category of trucks, including big rigs.

Automakers have explored hydrogen for long-haul trucking partly because refilling a hydrogen tank is faster than recharging the large batteries those trucks require. But moving hydrogen to refueling stations is difficult, and the pressure tanks needed to store it on a truck are large and costly.

LNK’s approach carries hydrogen chemically attached to another compound. Liquid organic hydrogen carriers, or LOHCs, are liquids that can absorb and later release hydrogen. They have been widely studied, but mostly for moving large quantities of hydrogen from refineries to fueling stations. The equipment needed to separate hydrogen from the LOHC, a reactor, has been too big to fit on a truck. “A lot of the reactors that LOHC companies have today are really large. They’re about the size of a shipping container,” Huynh said. “We have shrunk that basically to the size of a mini fridge.”

Putting the reactor on the truck saves energy, the company says. When hydrogen is stored on a truck, it must be pressurized to more than 11,000 psi, or 800 bar, roughly 800 times normal air pressure, and compressing it takes substantial power. Because LNK’s fuel carries hydrogen in liquid form and releases it on board as needed, that step is removed. “We’re eliminating the expensive compression step,” Sayandeep Biswas, co-founder and CEO of LNK Energies, told TechCrunch.

In LNK’s system, once hydrogen is released on the truck, it can be burned in a conventional internal combustion engine, the kind used in today’s diesel trucks, with only a few modifications. The company uses waste heat from the engine to help power the on-board reactor. If a trucking company wants to eliminate combustion emissions entirely, it can use fuel cells instead, which convert hydrogen into electricity to power electric motors.

The LOHC can be stored in a traditional fuel tank and dispensed with pumps, just like diesel. “The entire hydrogen infrastructure doesn’t need to exist,” Biswas said. “It’s just a standard diesel station.”

Biswas and Huynh have a demonstration reactor working in the lab that can power an engine from a lawnmower. In 18 months, they plan to install a larger version in a commercial truck. The trucks will cost more up front but are expected to be cheaper to operate. The founders are confident they can undercut diesel at a price of $6.50 per gallon after they have made just 50 to 100 trucks. None of their projections include government subsidies. “The idea isn’t to have a technology that is cheaper at scale, but one that is cheaper even during that adoption period,” Biswas said.

Editor's Summary LNK Energies says its onboard LOHC reactor can convert diesel heavy-duty trucks to hydrogen without requiring a new hydrogen fueling network, and it claims a 13% lower total cost of ownership than diesel for Class 8 trucks. The startup plans to install a larger reactor in a commercial truck within 18 months and projects it can beat diesel at $6.50 per gallon after 50 to 100 trucks, without subsidies. It is presenting at TechCrunch Disrupt’s Startup Battlefield.