Green hydrogen firm Protium has revived its HyHaul hydrogen trucking project on a “commercially funded footing,” months after the UK scheme was closed following the withdrawal of government grant support.
HyHaul Mobility, part of the Protium group, has signed a new agreement with Fuel Cell Systems (FCL) to supply what the companies claim will be the UK’s largest high-pressure hydrogen refuelling system for heavy goods vehicles (HGVs).
The agreement marks a change in fortunes for HyHaul. Its previous £14m ($18.9m) ZEHID HyHaul project was closed last December after failing to secure enough binding commitments from fleet customers, leading to the termination of an Innovate UK and Department for Transport grant.
That scheme had envisaged three hydrogen refuelling stations along the M4 corridor between Reading and Avonmouth to support up to 30 fuel cell HGVs.
While the consortium had engaged over 100 prospective customers representing 192 vehicles, those expressions of interest did not translate into signed vehicle leasing agreements within the grant timetable.
Protium is now seeking to move the concept forward without relying on the previous grant-backed model, although the latest plans appear narrower in scope.
Under the new agreement, FCS will design, manufacture, test, and deliver a single high-capacity hydrogen refuelling system expected to be installed at one of Protium’s green hydrogen production and distribution sites.
The company has two electrolyser plants in South Wales and has an operating agreement for a live green hydrogen plant in Dorset. The refuelling site’s location is expected to be announced before the end of 2026.
The system will dispense hydrogen at both 350 and 700 bar and have the capacity to supply up to 1,450kg per day.
Protium CEO Chris Jackson said the agreement would introduce refuelling capacity alongside assets Protium already owns and operates, adding that customers continued to see hydrogen mobility as part of their net zero plans.
However, neither company has disclosed any corresponding commitments to deploy hydrogen HGVs. Under the original scheme, Novuna Vehicle Solutions was expected to lease hydrogen-powered trucks to fleet operators.
The restart is notable due to customer commitments behind the hurdle that brought the original project to an end. HyHaul said last year that weak conversion of interest into binding agreements reflected wider pressures across the zero-emission HGV market, rather than a rejection of hydrogen technology.
Tom Chicken, CEO of FCS, said high-capacity infrastructure would be needed to shift hydrogen HGV fleets “from trials to daily operations,” describing the project as infrastructure designed around commercial fleet requirements.
While heavy-duty road applications are viewed as a favourable mobility use case for hydrogen, critics still claim that high vehicle and fuel costs and low energy efficiency create major barriers to adoption.
In a H2 View webinar earlier this year, David Cebon, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Cambridge University, argued that the economics of hydrogen trucking make it “completely out of the question” for operators to buy and run hydrogen vehicles.
Nevertheless, the revival adds to growing momentum in the European hydrogen trucking space, with major players recently hinting at plans for coordinated roll-out across Germany.
