You may have noticed we are running another story today about the development of hydrogen powered engines. This follows on from last week's piece about JCB who are preparing to display what they describe as their "super-efficient hydrogen combustion technology" at the upcoming Conexpo 2023 show in Las Vegas.
Today's news is regarding Hyundai Doosan Infracore (HDI), makers of the Bobcat kit, who will also be showing the latest developments in their hydrogen internal combustion engines at the same event. HDI say these new hydrogen engines will be installed on commercial vehicles such as trucks and construction equipment for testing by 2024, and they promise that full-scale mass production is planned for 2025.
HDI are clearly keen to get this technology up and running as quickly as possible, with their head of the engine department, Kim Joong-soo, quoted in the piece saying, "We will put in the utmost effort to realise carbon neutrality in response to the eco-friendly market by developing green hydrogen-related technologies in line with increasingly strict carbon emission regulations."
It is interesting because we will have all heard various manufacturers talk about these type of engines for a while now, as a possible solution for future sustainability. Perhaps it has seemed a tad sci-fi in the past, with the thought of mass use of hydrogen machines a possibility for the far-off future? With the announcements of these two companies though, and others like them, we now have a clear indication that machinery manufacturers are doing their utmost to bring them to market as soon as possible.
None will want to be left behind in the race to get this new technology in the showrooms of their dealers and all will want to be seen to be taking their environmental responsibilities seriously.
Battery recycling breakthrough
Until the time that hydrogen power is common across the sector though, battery-powered machinery will remain as the choice for those consumers looking to spend their money as greenly as possible. It's extraordinary really, just how massively the cordless market has taken off over the past few years. It's of course standard now for almost every manufacturer to have a line of battery products - with traditionally-fuelled tools becoming ever more sidelined.
However, we do occasionally hear the odd dissenting voice, casting doubt over the longevity of battery as a permanent, future eco-solution. One of the principal reasons that critics site for the technology being less than perfect, is the problem of what to do with used batteries at the end of their life? How can they be easily and safely disposed of has been a genuine issue that dealers have been faced with since the tools rose in popularity.
You may remember in fact, that the retiring, soon to be ex director of BAGMA, Keith Christian, penned an article in the May-June edition of our magazine last year, precisely about this, entitled, 'The challenges of recycling lithium batteries.'
Keith wrote about how the eventual disposal of Lithium-ion batteries presents problems to the environment and safety issues when being stored, transported or stockpiled. "These issues," said Keith, "seem to be causing some concern within the OPE industry amidst a lack of understanding of what the ‘rules’ are as to who is responsible for the eventual safe disposal or recycling of the Li-ion batteries, whatever the size."
Keith talked about how suppliers are looking into ways of re-cycling or re-purposing batteries and advised dealers that if they had old batteries on their premises to ensure they are " stored safely, well away from other products and in proper containers."
It's clearly an issue that many of our dealer readers will have experienced - so it was heartening to read this week that perhaps a breakthrough has been made.
Researchers at Linnaeus University in Sweden say they have discovered a new energy-efficient method for recycling lithium-ion batteries. You can read the whole article here but essentially they say they have developed a more environmentally friendly way of retrieving cobalt from the used batteries. The piece says that with a liquid solvent made of readily available substances, "derived from urine and acetic acid", over 97 percent of the cobalt can be recovered. The researchers claim they see good potential for large-scale application.
Not being a scientist I can't attest to the effectiveness of the method, but they say it involves dissolving the lithium cobalt oxide, a substance used in modern lithium-ion batteries, using a liquid solvent, that separates the cobalt, which can subsequently be used for fabricating new batteries.
"The solvent is a combination of two readily available substances: a simple derivate of urea, which is naturally occurring in urine, and acetamide, which can easily be retrieved from acetic acid”, says Subramanian Suriyanarayanan, one of the researchers behind the solvent that Linnaeus University say they have been researching since 2013.
They go on to explain how the main benefit of the new solvent, compared to widely used methods for recycling cobalt, is that the process can take place at much lower temperatures - meaning the whole process is lot more energy efficient.
Again, not that I'm in any way an expert, but this all sounds positive to my layman's ears - and if it leads to a simpler, faster means for dealers to disperse of dead batteries from their premises, then it is genuinely exciting news.
Certainly it's the most innovative use of urine I've read this week!
