Progress made with Volvo’s fuel cell truck
After long being regarded as a decade away, fuel cells are making significant progress. South Korea’s Hyundai has delivered 10 of 30 Xcient fuel cell trucks for pilot use at the Port of Oakland in California. The rest are expected in October. Paccar is working with Toyota on commercializing the automaker’s second-generation fuel cell stack for Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks in 2025.
Volvo executives are clear that hydrogen as a transportation fuel only works if it comes from renewable sources like wind and solar or is generated from an electrolyzer. All three are plentiful in Sweden and some parts of Europe but less so elsewhere. Hydrogen itself may be clean but if its feedstock is natural gas or methane, well-to-wheel emissions measurements suffer.
Cargo volumes drop 15% for Port of Oakland
Cargo volumes at the Port of Oakland fell 15% YoY to 179,161 TEUs in August as demand from retailers, manufacturers and other shippers slowed down.
August volumes last year were a total of 211,123 TEUs. Volumes also dipped compared to July 2023, which saw a total of 181,555 TEUs — the port’s highest amount of cargo handled since November 2022.
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Marine highway projects get $12M in grants
The Biden-Harris Administration awarded $12 million in grants to the DOT’s Maritime Administration (MARAD) to support eight marine highway projects — short-sea routes and inland water routes in the U.S. that have been designated by the Secretary of Transportation.
The funding will go towards improving the movement of goods along navigable U.S. waterways and expanding existing services in Alaska, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin, ultimately strengthening supply chains and leading to lower costs for consumers.
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DHL agrees to 10-year deal for biomethane production
DHL Supply Chain has agreed a 10-year deal with Stream BioEnergy that will see €80 million (approximately £69.4 million) invested in a biomethane production facility in Cork, Republic of Ireland.
DHL says that the new facility will provide fuel for up to 150 trucks, which it calculates will lead to an annual carbon reduction of 15,000 tonnes.
Biomethane, also known as renewable natural gas (RNG), is a type of methane gas that is produced from organic materials through a process called anaerobic digestion or biomass gasification.
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