GM has partnered with Celadyne Technologies in the latter’s development of heavy-duty, durable hydrogen fuel cells for industrial use and large industrial trucks, which Celadyne says it is pursuing “in support of a larger decarbonization strategy” for those sectors.
The GM-Celadyne partnership project is one of 16 U.S. Department of Energy “green projects” that are receiving a total of $47 million in funding from the Department.
The press release doesn’t specify how much of the funding will go to Celadyne, though back in March, the Department earmarked GM to receive $30 million as part of a $750 million funding round for hydrogen projects. Celadyne claims that its “Dura technology makes fuel cells super durable” with several types of special membranes it developed.
Celadyne’s CEO and founder Gary Ong says that “to collaborate with some of the world’s most well-known and respected developers of fuel cell systems on such a wide-scale project means bringing green solutions to the forefront, and we couldn’t be more excited.” He adds that the company’s goal is “propelling hydrogen toward mass-market adoption for the sake of the planet.”
GM, meanwhile, has been developing its own hydrogen fuel cell technology for similar heavy-duty trucking applications. It partnered with Autocar LLC in December 2023 to power severe-duty Class 8 trucks including cement mixers, construction trucks, dump trucks and other vehicles with its Hydrotec Power Cube technology.
Another partnership sees The General supplying Power Cubes for the titanic Komatsu 930E mining truck, a vehicle capable of hauling 230 tons of payload at a time. These uses indicate the effectiveness of hydrogen fuel cell technology for powerful commercial vehicles, with minimal refueling downtime and fuel cells that are lighter-weight than other solutions.
GM announced that its Hydrotec fuel cell technology was ready for large-scale commercial use back in July 2023, about a year and a half after development of the cells was first publicly revealed.
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Compressed hydrogen is almost on price parity with diesel. So the race is on- 200,000$ fuel cell vs 10,000$ engine modification
I’m glad to see GM is not putting all their eggs in one basket when it comes to new energy development. Not going all in only on EVs and being open to the possibility of fuel cell is smart. Its what the Japanese brands are doing. With fuel cell, you get the driving benefits of an electric powertrain with the storage, fueling, and range benefits of liquid/gas fuels. If fuel cell becomes feasible it will make battery EVs obsolete and the world won’t need to be dependent on an authoritarian bully.
Great move GM…!!!
“The GM-Celadyne partnership project is one of 16 U.S. Department of Energy “green projects” that are receiving a total of $47 million in funding from the Department.’ This all you need to know about why GM is re-entering this arena. The same reason Toyota and Hyundai have pursued it for decades – their governments throw billions at this ‘holy grail’. The technology is absolutely sound, but the most efficient proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer, Iridium is the rarest, and by far the most expensive, on earth. The vast majority of Iridium resides in Africa and Iridium has other competing uses and is necessary for high strength steel to build skyscrapers, etc. For decades, chemical engineers have assessed countless PEM electrolyzer combinations and it always comes back to Iridium – $4600/ounce / Gold $2500/ounce. Until we start mining meteors and asteroids, Iridium will be the limiting factor. Consider that the largest producing Iridium mines are on meteorite locations.