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Even Cummins Inc., A Diesel Engine Giant Pushes Batteries And Hydrogen At COP26 To Combat Climate Crisis
Forbes ^ | 11/13/2021 | Alan OhnsmanF

Posted on 11/18/2021 10:02:54 AM PST by SeekAndFind

Cummins Inc., a century-old maker of truck engines powered by diesel and other fossil fuels, may not seem like the most likely attendee at the UN Climate Conference COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, but CEO Tom Linebarger was there this week telling industrial partners and customers the company is working to help them shift to low- and no-carbon vehicles powered by batteries and hydrogen.

As battery-electric passenger models gain market share in the U.S., Europe and China, attention is shifting to electrifying larger, dirtier commercial vehicles including semi-trucks, construction and mining vehicles, as well as trains, ships and aircraft. Currently, no single type of electric power train can easily scale to handle light and heavy-duty vehicle categories, so it’s necessary to use both, Linebarger tells Forbes.

“If you’re flogging one thing and you trash the other, it's not a good plan for meeting the challenge of climate change,” he said from Glasgow. “Climate change is the existential crisis of our time. It’s just not a good idea to argue about whether batteries are better than fuel cells.”

Shifting away from carbon-based fuels was a key topic for negotiators at COP26 and appeared to have made historic breakthrough with first-draft agreement calling for the phasing out of fossil fuel subsidies. But a second draft appeared to soften the wording as major oil and gas producers fight to save subsidies.

Rather than storing electricity as batteries do, fuel cells make it as needed in an electrochemical process involving hydrogen and oxygen that emits only water as a by-product. Columbus, Indiana-based Cummins is far from alone in pushing hydrogen to power heavy-duty vehicles. Toyota, Hino, Hyundai Motor, Volvo, Daimler, Nikola, General Motors and Navistar have their own hydrogen-fueled plans. They say the technology is better suited for heavy trucks that drive hundreds of miles

(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Society
KEYWORDS: climatechange; cummins; ev; hydrogen
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1 posted on 11/18/2021 10:02:54 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, whose company has become synonymous with electric cars, is among the most vocal critics of using hydrogen as a transportation fuel, citing its inefficiency relative to batteries and the high cost of the fuel cell stacks that make electric power from hydrogen and oxygen.

Yet makers of trucks and commercial vehicles that need to travel long distances aren’t convinced that multi-ton, lithium-ion battery packs that need relatively long recharge times are the best option. (Notably, Musk also doesn’t launch his SpaceX rockets with batteries, but instead a blend of kerosene and liquid oxygen that spew climate-warming black carbon, or soot.)


2 posted on 11/18/2021 10:03:33 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

3 posted on 11/18/2021 10:03:56 AM PST by rarestia (“A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one.” -Hamilton)
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To: SeekAndFind

What climate crisis? I think they are making it up.


4 posted on 11/18/2021 10:04:21 AM PST by cuban leaf (My prediction: Harris is Spiro Agnew. We'll soon see who becomes Gerald Ford, and our next prez.)
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To: SeekAndFind

I want to see the solar powered D-11. Upgraded RC memorial edition with faux corinthian leathet interior.


5 posted on 11/18/2021 10:07:14 AM PST by rktman (Destroy America from within? Check! WTH? Enlisted USN 1967 to end up with this? 😕)
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To: SeekAndFind
Dear Climate Charge hysterics

How are you gong to generate the electricity for all those electric cars and trucks?

And no, wind, biomass, solar etc do not, and will never, generate enough, power to supply the needed electricity.

6 posted on 11/18/2021 10:07:46 AM PST by MNJohnnie (They would have abandon leftism to achieve sanity. Freeper Olog-hai)
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To: SeekAndFind
Hydrogen is the next big energy storage push. Diesel generators can easily be redesigned to be Hydrogen powered generators. Then you will have to replace your old diesel.
7 posted on 11/18/2021 10:08:23 AM PST by D Rider ( )
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To: SeekAndFind

Well, the tech for ‘splitting the electron’ is rolling out in the next couple of years, and the energy ‘gain’ is 100x to 200x over that of simply burning Hydrogen. So, there is that.


8 posted on 11/18/2021 10:08:51 AM PST by _Jim (Save babies)
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To: SeekAndFind

Fun fact:
There are electric dump trucks which never need external charging - they go uphill empty, fill up, then use regenerative braking hauling cargo downhill, getting enough energy to repeat.

Very narrow use case, yes, but interesting/amusing.


9 posted on 11/18/2021 10:09:12 AM PST by ctdonath2 (Statistics don't matter when they happen to you.)
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To: D Rider

re: “Hydrogen is the next big energy storage push. “

Are they digging any new Hydrogen mines?


10 posted on 11/18/2021 10:09:39 AM PST by _Jim (Save babies)
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To: cuban leaf

Cummins makes mostly the engines in RV’s and based in Indiana, the mecca of RV’s.

BIG PROBLEM though: when there are many YT vids of ‘DONT BUY AN RV” (Steve Lehto h/t) , Cummins was mostly the culprit. So if the engine-maker of RV’s which is notorious for breaking down faster than a Chevy, then this idiot lost his credibility and hit rock bottom. Even Scotty Kilmer laughs at Cummins Engines.


11 posted on 11/18/2021 10:10:01 AM PST by max americana (FIRED LEFTARD employees at our office every election since 2008 and enjoyed seeing them cry.)
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To: SeekAndFind
“If you’re flogging one thing and you trash the other, it's not a good plan for meeting the challenge of climate change,” he said from Glasgow. “Climate change is the existential crisis of our time. It’s just not a good idea to argue about whether batteries are better than fuel cells.”

Did he really say that. Because if he was talking from the cab of a truck with a Cummins idling, then it's likely nobody could actually hear him.

12 posted on 11/18/2021 10:10:25 AM PST by Sirius Lee (They intend to murder us. Prep if you want to live and live like you are prepping for eternal life)
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To: SeekAndFind

Luckily strip-mining the raw materials for batteries is good for the environment. 🤡


13 posted on 11/18/2021 10:12:33 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum ("Communism is not love. Communism is a hammer which we use to crush the enemy." ― Mao Zedong)
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To: SeekAndFind

Imaginary solutions for an imaginary problem.....


14 posted on 11/18/2021 10:12:41 AM PST by Lurkinanloomin ( (Natural born citizens are born here of citizen parents)(Know Islam, No Peace-No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: SeekAndFind

Millenials, Metros and queers populate a great deal of the upper cadre of many major US institutions


15 posted on 11/18/2021 10:13:55 AM PST by knarf (?<p>Little kids grow up to be adults that get into powerful positions and act out their thoughts.<pg)
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To: SeekAndFind
Is not this how innovation to fight climate change (real or imagined) should be handled? Private enterprise and market forces finding solutions rather than government edict?

Then again the cynic in me might think this is just another CEO positioning their company to be near the front of the line for the impending flood of government funding for climate change?

16 posted on 11/18/2021 10:14:51 AM PST by buckalfa (I have forgotten more than I ever knew.)
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To: MNJohnnie

“How are you gong to generate the electricity for all those electric cars and trucks?”

Not a believe in AGW, but there is a solution to this. 70% of our power production is idle overnight. As long a vehicles are scheduled to charge then, there is not need for extra production.


17 posted on 11/18/2021 10:15:57 AM PST by Renfrew
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To: Renfrew

Did you miss the part about shutting down all the coal and natural gass fired electrical plants?


18 posted on 11/18/2021 10:18:29 AM PST by MNJohnnie (They would have abandon leftism to achieve sanity. Freeper Olog-hai)
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To: _Jim

Hydrogen is itself a battery. You use power generated by other sources to split water into oxygen and Hydrogen. The Hydrogen is then used as a fuel where and when you need it and converted back into heat or electricity.


19 posted on 11/18/2021 10:18:55 AM PST by D Rider ( )
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To: SeekAndFind

Water vapor is a greenhouse gas. They are holding that card back until a few trillion has been spent on hydrogen infrastructure.


20 posted on 11/18/2021 10:19:17 AM PST by beef (The Chinese have a little secret—diversity is _not_ a strength.)
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