At CERAWeek, Parker Meeks, the new CEO, didn’t answer questions about the problems Hyzon (NASDAQ: HYZN) is experiencing. He only said he would be able to discuss their future soon. After being appointed as the permanent CEO on Monday, he gave the impression that the company is not in danger of failing. The whole event was centered around hydrogen and it seemed that many of the hydrogen-focused sessions were repeating the same topics.

In an interview, Meeks, the interim CEO and president of Hyzon, spoke about the company’s plans to expand their hydrogen fuel cell business. He was confident in this form of transportation’s future but noted that the key challenge is creating the necessary infrastructure. To get started, Hyzon has been constructing prototype trucks to test out their technology and a Hyliion truck with a sleeper cab and Hyzon fuel cells powering an electric drivetrain.

But the Hyliion deal is not the first such arrangement Hyzon has with another company; it’s the latest in a series of ongoing trials. In a follow-up email, a spokesman for Hyzon said the company commenced the use of mobile refuelers in a hydrogen vehicle trial last year with Texas logistics firm Talke. A mobile refueler is a tank car that holds hydrogen and can refuel 5-20 vehicles. Mobile refueling eliminates the need for fixed-base refueling infrastructure, as the refueling assets take to the road instead.

Meeks indicated that Hyzon is not only deploying mobile refueling vehicles, but also constructing permanent hydrogen fueling locations “behind the customer fences”. The firm has already tested their services with TTSI (California), Alberta Motor Transport Association (Edmonton) and DB Schenker (Europe), with the Edmonton trial making use of mobile refueling. According to Meeks, an average range of 300-350 miles is achievable with a 50 kilo fill-up of hydrogen, although the efficiency of this process is expected to improve with time. Virtually every speaker at CERAWeek brought up the Inflation Reduction Act’s production tax credit of $3 per kilo of hydrogen, especially for green hydrogen produced with renewable energy.

Hyzon has its sights set on California as a place to launch its hydrogen-powered truck tests, which brings into focus the advantages of the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) program. This program motivates the production of low-carbon transportation fuels and generates credits which can be sold. The aim is to make diesel parity achievable at $6/kilo, and with governmental subsidies, this could potentially be done at a price of $10 without subsidies.

The drop in LCFS credit costs is a cause for concern, as they were once as high as $200, meaning the incentive for zero-carbon fuel was around $3-4 per kilogram. Hyzon has joined with Chevron and Raven SR to make green hydrogen from food waste in California, owning 20%, Raven having 30% and the rest belonging to Chevron. This clean hydrogen will be sold by the major oil company, which in turn will create LCFS credits. The $3 billion pool of funds created to support energy transformation at ports may be beneficial, especially for California’s Advanced Clean Fleet regulation drayage vehicles.

Sources: https://www.freightwaves.com/news/hydrogen-fuel-cell-maker-hyzon-eyes-small-scale-projects-to-advance