ICEBreaker Hydrogen HGV offers new engineering approach to zero-emissions technologies

Project ICEBreaker, delivered by a consortium of leading British engineering companies, has unveiled a fully-configured hydrogen fuel cell HGV truck.

The consortium say it answers many of the key design and development questions faced by the automotive industry as it prepares the next generation of light and heavy-duty commercial vehicles to meet new zero-emissions regulations from the EU that start to take effect in 2030.

The project has brought together the hydrogen engineering expertise of Mira Technology Park-based Viritech, HORIBA MIRA and Intelligent Energy in Loughborough, with funding from the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) through the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK’s Advanced Route to Market Demonstrator competition.

Jointly they have developed a drivetrain solution that answers the key hydrogen engineering challenges in the creation of a fuel cell electric vehicle truck.

The partners have collaborated to harness the novel technologies developed by Intelligent Energy and Viritech to deliver an integrated solution. HORIBA MIRA focused on the vehicle control system, the CAE-simulated and verified thermal management of key components including the battery pack, DC-DC converters, motor and ancillaries and the high and low voltage wiring systems. In addition, ICEBreaker has been designed and realised with a digital twin at the heart of its engineering approach.

The full ICEBreaker vehicle design and build in a truncated 12-month period has enabled the project partners to develop a comprehensive safety engineering approach for both hydrogen fuel cell vehicle design and proof-of-concept build.

The ICEBreaker project, embodied in the debut of the HGV launched at Cenex Expo, provides a complete hydrogen engineering approach from design, build, test, verify and operate FCEV goods vehicles for OEMs and its tiered supply chain.

Timothy Lyons, Viritech’s CEO said, “ICEBreaker has been an intense but purposeful project for Viritech, HORIBA MIRA and Intelligent Energy. In less than 12 months, our combined experience has enabled us to jointly develop an engineering process to design, plan and integrate the operation of a hydrogen drivetrain for commercial vehicles. This process has developed new hydrogen-specific hardware, control systems and software to enhance vehicle deployment, demanded a safety engineering approach for a new fuel vector and demonstrated its full integration into an existing HGV architecture. We’re confident that this project will deliver important insights that will be of great use to the industry as it embraces hydrogen to tackle forthcoming emissions regulations.”