LNK Energies retrofits diesel trucks to run on hydrogen

Diesel fuel powers everything from shipping to agriculture, and with prices hitting record highs in recent weeks, governments around the world are scrambling to contain the fallout. For now, that has meant releasing fuel from stockpiles — but MIT spinout LNK Energies is betting the longer-term answer is converting existing heavy-duty trucks from diesel to hydrogen.

The startup’s technology slashes pollution and costs while shielding operators from the price spikes caused by geopolitical instability, such as the war in Iran. “If you look at total cost of ownership of a Class 8 truck, it’s 13% cheaper than diesel,” Alexis Huynh, LNK’s chief technology officer, told TechCrunch. (Class 8 is the heaviest category of trucks, including big rigs.)

Automotive companies have explored hydrogen for long-haul trucking in part because refilling a hydrogen tank is faster than recharging the large batteries those trucks would otherwise need. But hydrogen is hard to move to refueling stations, and the pressure tanks needed to store it on a truck are large and costly. LNK’s workaround is to carry the hydrogen chemically attached to another compound — a liquid organic hydrogen carrier, or LOHC, that can absorb and later release hydrogen. LOHCs have been studied for years, mostly for moving large volumes of hydrogen from refineries to fueling stations — the reactor needed to separate the hydrogen back out has typically been too big to fit on a truck. “We have shrunk that basically to the size of a mini fridge,” Huynh said.

Moving the reactor onto the truck also saves energy: hydrogen stored on a truck must be pressurized to more than 11,000 psi (800 bar) — roughly 800 times normal air pressure — and that compression takes significant power. LNK’s design eliminates that step, since the hydrogen is carried in liquid form and released on board as needed. Once released, it can be burned in a conventional internal-combustion engine with only a few modifications, using waste heat from the engine to power the reactor; operators wanting to eliminate combustion emissions can use fuel cells instead, converting the hydrogen to electricity for electric motors. The LOHC itself is stored in a traditional fuel tank and dispensed with pumps, just like diesel.

Co-founders Sayandeep Biswas (CEO) and Huynh (CTO) have a demonstration reactor running in the lab that can power a lawnmower engine; in 18 months, they plan to install a larger version in a commercial truck. The trucks will cost more upfront but should be cheaper to operate, and the pair say they can undercut diesel at $6.50 per gallon once they’ve built just 50 to 100 trucks — projections that don’t include government subsidies. LNK is one of the companies competing in TechCrunch Disrupt’s Startup Battlefield pitch competition this week in San Francisco.

Why it matters

If LNK’s numbers hold at commercial scale, hydrogen retrofits could give trucking fleets a way to cut both emissions and exposure to diesel-price shocks without waiting for new hydrogen refueling infrastructure to get built.