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long-haul trucks are capped at 80,000 pounds by regulation. do you happen to know what percentage of deliveries run at 100% weight or close to full capacity? w
by panabee 5y ago
long-haul trucks are capped at 80,000 pounds by regulation. do you happen to know what percentage of deliveries run at 100% weight or close to full capacity?
with further advancements, battery optimists expect the weight penalty compared to hydrogen at around 6,000 - 10,000 pounds.
by your estimate, how much of this weight penalty will translate into actual lost cargo -- and thus lost sales?
- rsj_hn 5y ago> with further advancements, battery optimists expect the weight penalty compared to hydrogen at around 6,000 - 10,000 pounds. The penalty is unbounded because one has a higher energy/weight ratio than the other. So with hydrogen at ~ 130 MJ/kg and batteries at ~1 MJ/kg, if you need a mega Joule then the weight difference is ~130Kg. If you need 100 MJ then the weight difference is 13000 kg, etc. So each energy will have a different penalty. Let's look at trucks. Today a semi will carry about 1000L of fuel (~260 gallons), which is ~40,000MJ. That would require ~300Kg of hydrogen (plus supporting weight for the container, etc) or ~40,000 kg of batteries (plus supporting weight for coolant, container, etc). Thus what is economical for cars may not be economical for semis. There is not a single weight difference between cars and trucks. Whereas a big jet can use 20,000 Liters of fuel which would require 800,000kg of battery + weight of supporting infrastructure or ~6100 kg of hydrogen. So it makes sense that the two biggest truck manufacturers would be very interested in hydrogen.
- kube-system 5y agoThere are other costs to weight other than cargo capacity, both for freight companies and society as a whole. More frequent maintenance, slower speeds, inaccessible and/or altered routes, more accidents, more wear on infrastructure.