ULEMCo and its partners are set to bring hydrogen fuelled fire engines to Oxfordshire through a new project.
On 13 August, it announced that alongside Oxfordshire County Council and its Fire and Rescue Service, funding has been awarded to produce an optimised design for specialised hydrogen fuelled vehicles. Work on HySPERT is expected to take eight months, with the partners developing a deep understanding of the specific duty cycles for emergency service vehicles that require 24/7 readiness in the first phase of the project. It will see a thorough understanding and detailed model of the current energy requirement created, including the energy needed to pump water for at least four hours.
ULEMCo will design the fuel cell electric powertrain for the Fire and Rescue Service. A key output will be a full specification and detailed engineered design for a prototype vehicle, ahead of the physical building of a prototype in the next stage of development.
Alongside this, Oxfordshire County Council will develop a plan for the hydrogen refuelling requirements across the Fire and Rescue Service. It will assess how this fits in with wider plans to develop a hydrogen infrastructure across the county.
