ULEMCo secures millions in funding to develop hydrogen vehicle technology

The Ultra Low Emission Mileage Company, ULEMCo, has been awarded £7.9m ($9.8m) in funding to develop technology enabling emergency vehicles to run on hydrogen. The funding, split equally between the UK government and industry partners, will be used for the HYER Power project in Oxfordshire. The project is to design a hydrogen fuel cell range extender module than can be added to an electric vehicle and will be tested on heavy-duty vehicles, such as emergency vehicles and a HGV road sweeper. The outcome will be a zero-emission ambulance and a prototype fire pumping appliance.

A total of £7.9 million in funding has been awarded to the hydrogen company and its partners.

The total £7.9 million ($9.8 million) funds awarded to develop the hydrogen vehicle technology is made up of £3.9 million government funding and another £3.9 million by industry, which matched the government’s amount. The funds are for a major project with Oxfordshire County Council (OCC), known as the “HYER Power” project.

The HYER Power project focuses on developing H2 technologies for emergency vehicles.

ULEMCo (Ultra Low Emission Milage Company Limited), is a hydrogen company based out of Liverpool. It specializes in converting vehicles to enable them to operate on commercially available hydrogen for the purpose of allowing vehicle fleet managers to lower their carbon emissions to ultra-low levels.

The focus of the HYER Power project is to develop a hydrogen fuel cell range extender module that can be integrated into electric vehicles and used for specialist applications for heavy-duty vehicles ranging from street sweepers to emergency vehicles such as ambulances and fire engines.

“Hydrogen could play an important role in our efforts to decarbonise, especially where battery powered electrification is challenging in heavy duty vehicles like fire engines,” said Councillor Pete Sudbury, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Environment, in a recent ULEMCo news release announcing the awarded funding to develop the hydrogen vehicle technology.

“I’m delighted that we are partnering with ULEMCo on this important step in exploring and advancing zero carbon solutions,” Sudbury added.

The hydrogen vehicle technology funding supports zero-emissions vehicles goals in the UK.

The funding ULEMCo and its partners (which include OCC, Technical Services (UK) Ltd, Altair Ltd, and Emergency One) will receive has been awarded through the Advanced Propulsion Centre Collaborative Research and Development programmme. It was awarded in support of ambitions to build an end-to-end supply chain for zero-emission vehicles in the country.

Each partner contributes to the project in a different way. OCC will provide customer input, trialling and dissemination. This work will reportedly lead to a manufacturing-ready, zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell-based range extension system for electric drivetrains. The zero-emission range extender will apply existing, proven fuel cell tech from the Toyota Mirai.

Meanwhile, Technical Services (UK) Ltd will provide cooling capability, Altair Ltd is responsible for vehicle energy system modelling, and Emergency One will supply fire engine solutions.

HYER Power project key outcomes.

Among the key outcomes of the hydrogen vehicle technology development project is a production-ready zero-emission ambulance, a fully working prototype fire pumping appliance, and an HGV road sweeper.

“Hydrogen is essential for viable zero-emission solutions in applications such as emergency response vehicles due to the rapid refuelling that enables the vehicle to be ‘fit-to-go’, and to provide the full flexibility and range required for the job,” said Amanda Lyne, Managing Director, ULEMCo Ltd.

“Our strong relationship with OCC will enable us to make rapid progress moving to production-ready hydrogen fuel cell designs.”

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