ULEMCO

Project Partner – Ulemco

ULEMCo is a pioneering company based in Liverpool, UK, dedicated to advancing sustainable transport solutions, on replacing diesel with hydrogen. Particularly focused on the heavy-duty applications in road transport such as specialist HGV, non-road machinery, and other commercial vehicles, the company has capability to upgrade, upcycle and repower existing equipment or vehicles to use zero-carbon hydrogen fuel as part the transition to Net Zero and a greener future.

The global need to transform our energy systems to address climate change requires a range of solutions particularly in the “hard to do” sectors, like heavy-duty transport. Alongside this in the work to expand and rapidly scale up renewable generation, hydrogen in transport offers a route to improving the productivity of in these technologies. ULEMCo’s priority is to open markets for hydrogen into transport, now, which provides immediate base load demand for hydrogen fuel and the investment in infrastructure to supply it.

Commercial fleets across the UK benefit from a reduced carbon footprint while still having the full range capability of standard diesel vehicles. Alongside various partners, ULEMCo already supports a fleet of vehicles across a range of hydrogen hubs in the UK. The company is targeting commercial fleet conversions to grow the market significantly over the next 18 months, and then expand into other vehicle types over the longer term. Its growth plans include creating a hydrogen re-fuelling network to capitalise on the existing local infrastructure for this ‘green’ fuel.

Project role

ULEMCo’s role in the project is to enable the construction equipment to run on hydrogen, applying our road-transport proven dual fuel approach, to the 4 excavators, and demonstrating the carbon emission reduction potential, in real-world use. This will involve developing onboard hydrogen storage solution, the conversion of the engines to run on hydrogen and the technical support and know-how to ensure that this is all done safely for the requirements of sites and operation.

ULEMCo’s hydrogen dual-fuel technology enables hydrogen to displace diesel energy, directly in the engine, with every kg of H2 used, giving a direct carbon saving out the exhaust pipe, matching the power and efficiency performance of the standard machine; the data gathered in the project demonstration is intended to show this from the real-world setting alongside the detailed analysis of the emissions and user experience.

Additionally, unlike road vehicles, when in operation the excavators need to have fuel come to them rather than moving to a static refuelling point. As part of the project ULEMCo will design, build and demonstrate an innovative hydrogen fuel tanker solution that can fill for the site based h2 supply and provide full fills (to 350 bar) to the excavators while they remain at their operational location on the site. The HyTanka will have the capability to both fill from low pressure using its on-board compressor and or boost the supply for each fill, directly to machines, to optimise the utilisation of hydrogen at the sites.

Key Person

Name: Amanda Lyne

Position: Managing Director

“The Element 1 project is a significant opportunity for us to both demonstrate the real-world applicability of hydrogen to deliver carbon emission reduction for machines and equipment used in construction, as well as proving our dual fuel technology and HyTanka solutions are practical, viable solutions to this otherwise hard to decarbonise application.”

Amanda Lyne
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