Three potential benefits of hydrogen trucking, and what it will take to tap into them

In the U.S., long-haul heavy-duty trucking accounts for nearly half of the nation’s on-road, carbon-emitting diesel fuel consumption and roughly 13% of U.S. transportation greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately, this type of trucking—like marine shipping and aviation—is an end-use case where vehicle weight and energy needs can make it hard to decarbonize with on-board batteries alone.

Zero-carbon fuels like low-emissions hydrogen, which contains no carbon and produces no carbon dioxide when combusted or used in a fuel cell, can play a valuable role in the decarbonization of hard-to-electrify systems, provided the hydrogen is produced in ways that minimize greenhouse gas emissions.