PARIS, FRANCE: Air Liquide and Faurecia signed a joint development agreement to design and produce on-board liquid hydrogen storage systems for the heavy-duty trucks (automotive industry).

Through this technology partnership, the two companies will accelerate the deployment of zero-emission heavy-duty mobility.

Particularly well-suited for long-haul applications, liquid hydrogen storage for fuel cell vehicles has a key role to accelerate the transition toward carbon neutrality. With this technology, the amount of hydrogen stored is double that of gaseous hydrogen.

As a consequence, heavy duty trucks operating on liquid hydrogen have twice the autonomy of those operating on gaseous hydrogen, and benefit from a short refueling time and optimized payload.

The partnership will leverage the companies’ complementary competencies from their respective core businesses which will be fundamental to accelerate the technology’s time-to-market. On one side, Air Liquide will bring its recognized expertise across the entire liquid hydrogen value chain, including extreme cryogenics, storage technology, refueling interface and infrastructure know-how.

On the other side, Faurecia will bring its architecture and systems integration expertise, its recognized skill in automotive testing and simulation, its global automotive industrial know-how and footprint, as well as its strong intimacy with vehicle manufacturers.

Benoît Potier, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Air Liquide, declared: “Momentum is building around hydrogen, generating worldwide interest. In this context, players from many different sectors are joining forces to unlock the potential of hydrogen. Our partnership with a world leader such as Faurecia aims to accelerate the development of hydrogen mobility focusing on the heavy-duty market, for which hydrogen is particularly suited. Thanks to its innovation capacity and expertise, Air Liquide is contributing to the development of hydrogen ecosystems on the entire hydrogen value chain. In line with our sustainability objectives, our ambition is to contribute actively to the emergence of a low carbon society.”

Patrick Koller, Chief Executive Officer of Faurecia, added: “This partnership is the first milestone of a great journey with Air Liquide, a best-in-class partner in the field of hydrogen. Teaming up these two complementary hydrogen specialists will enable the development of cutting-edge liquid hydrogen storage technologies for heavy mobility with a rapid time-to-market.”

By 2030, fuel cell vehicle production could represent 2.5 million vehicles, of which 20% could be commercial trucks. Due to intensive usage, by 2030, heavy-duty vehicles could represent close to 60% of the hydrogen consumption for mobility markets.