The Compagnie Maritime Belge (CMB) was founded more than 125 years ago and has always known how to adapt to its environment. Based in Antwerp, it is present in Europe but also in Asia: Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo. For the past 10 years, CMB has been participating in the development of hydrogen as an alternative energy source through its subsidiary CMB.TECH.
Coming from the maritime sector, CMB has widened its field of competence by creating a hydrogen truck. The advantage of this truck is its dual-fuel technology which offers greater flexibility. The vehicle can run on pure diesel, hydrogen, or a mixture of both.
In dual-fuel H2 technology, hydrogen is drawn into the combustion chamber. This substitution directly reduces the amount of diesel required to power the engine. Clean H2 fuel contains no carbon, which reduces CO2 emissions whilst also maintaining the same power output.
Among this vehicle's many advantages, in addition to its lower cost compared to a fuel cell vehicle (used on electric vehicles), is its 500-kilometre range on a full tank of hydrogen to which it is possible to add 300 km by then switching to diesel.
Even if the ultimate goal is a 100% hydrogen truck, this first step towards zero emissions is important in the heavy-goods vehicle sector, renowned for being particularly polluting. As such, this dual-fuel system ensures that the vehicle will reach its destination no matter what happens along the way since it is always possible for it to switch to diesel.
This new technology already helps to reduce carbon emissions by 60%.
CMB was also the company to produce the first hydrogen ferry in Japan.
