JCB Hydrogen update. Why hydrogen could replace diesel on farm in the future.

JCB have been busy developing new hydrogen engines for their bigger machines that work long hours. I revisit JCB to find out why Lord Bamford is backing hydrogen as the fuel of the future for heavy machinery.

[anaxscotia]

Every time someone mentions an 8 hour shift Harry's thinking that's only half a day on a farm.

[Penfold]

Great video Harry
Can’t wait to see you trialing this system on your farm in 2025

[benpaynter]

The main challenge for JCB and others in the hydrogen space lies in its cost relative to diesel or simply storing electricity in a battery. Producing green hydrogen requires significant amounts of green electricity, and currently, it takes about three times more electricity to perform the same task using green hydrogen compared to batteries. This means three times the cost of electricity, three times the demand for electricity generation, and a much larger infrastructure of powerlines—all of which are increasingly expensive to implement.

On top of that, there’s the substantial cost of establishing green hydrogen production facilities and transporting the fuel via tankers. While none of these hurdles are insurmountable, they do eat into hydrogen's cost-effectiveness and efficiency compared to directly using green electricity in batteries.

At the same time, battery technology is following a similar trajectory to solar PV: as research and development flourish, production scales up, and costs are rapidly decreasing. While there are current limitations that make batteries less practical on construction sites, these obstacles may disappear within 5–10 years as the technology continues to advance. Massive R&D investments are driving rapid improvements in battery performance and manufacturing efficiency.

I’m a fan of JCB and applaud the innovation from this British company. However, I can’t help but feel their push toward hydrogen may be influenced by the desire to maintain their existing engine production processes, thereby avoiding the significant challenges associated with transforming their business model. As an aside, JCB already produces a battery-powered digger that can reportedly work a full day, albeit on a smaller scale.

Many people seem to favor hydrogen because it feels familiar, but as this video demonstrates, there’s often a lack of in-depth analysis of how hydrogen stacks up against the relentless momentum of battery-electric technology. Driven largely by China’s massive production capabilities, batteries are becoming an almost unstoppable force in the energy sector.

Hopefully, I’m wrong, and there’s room for both technologies to coexist. However, we shouldn’t fall into the trap of thinking that current limitations in battery technology will persist. A few years ago, battery-powered lorries seemed implausible, yet today we have several models that can operate continuously between tachograph breaks, with running costs far below diesel.

JCB’s efforts are commendable, but we need to carefully evaluate whether hydrogen is a long-term solution or simply a way to delay the inevitable shift toward batteries.

[JoshuaKoerner]

As a separate comment to help the algorithm: if I could give Lord Bamford a handshake and a heartfelt thank-you for being part of the solution, alongside his family, I would. Sadly I’m a nobody and across the pond. So thank you again, Harry.

[RAT.MAN.]

Fantastic again Harry,

Why the TV channels cant produce such quality reporting shows how much people see & appreciate your genuine interest & unbiased reporting

[KingWilliamProtector]

Take a bow, Lord Bamford and bravo to his team of engineers. You're all a big part of the solution.

[bjrnhjjakobsen]

Good video as always and also a proof that the audience likes episodes that takes more than 15 minutes which is becoming the standard on YouTube 🙏

[jackfrear]

Thanks for this video Harry. It's rare to get this level of insight into something that has the potential to be literally world-changing technology.

[AnyoneSeenMikeHunt]

With the price of hydrogen here in Au it currently costs about three times more per hour than diesel.
Storage is still a problem.

[anthdci]

The trouble is H2 will always be less efficient. For 100kwh generated electricity you will get 95kwh at the wheels for an EV, a hydrogen vehicle will be 30kwh at best. That makes it 3 times the cost to run.

[TheFarmingEngineerUK]

Batteries are going to continue to improve, but it's difficult to see how hydrogen can improve to overcome the challenges of storage and the inefficiency in producing it from electricity.

[BrianJones-wchu]

Harry the H2 fuel costs far more to make than it's value. The H2 industries in Norway and Germany are now collapsing. The calorific value of H2 is very poor. It's a nightmare to store as it runs away though welds and ruins pipes.
If companies want to do the research that's great but with present knowledge it's not going to work.

[patrickjoneill]

Fuel tank on the roof - there was an episode of Dad's Army where Jones the Butcher's van had a great bag of town gas on the roof. JCB's looks more secure.

[tomfurie]

Fascinating to follow this story. A shame the hydrogen production cost question was so artfully side-stepped.
Harry is chopping at the bit to get a hydrogen powered ‘something’ on the farm and run it through its paces. I can’t wait either.

[NehpetsG]

I'm not sold on the hydrogen route, for many reasons.
However, I admire these captains of industry getting stuck in and having a go at finding solutions.
I wish them every success and would be awesome if it works out.

[andyalder]

You asked Lord Bamford how do you make hydrogen efficiently and he said his engine is as efficient as a diesel engine. The truer answer is you can't make H2 efficiently, most of it is made not from electricity or H2 wells but from reforming natural gas. Converting natural gas from Ch4 to H2 is not efficient so it would be better to use CH4 in their engines. Added bonus of using CH4 is we already have the distribution network going to almost every home and farm.

The excess wind power problem is similarly solved with CH4 as easily as with H2, the Sabatier process converts electricity to natural gas and the "releases CO2" argument is not valid since the same amount of released CO2 is sucked out of the atmosphere in the production process so it is carbon neutral.

One more argument of CH4 Vs H2 is the molecule's size, H2 is very hard to contain, it seeps through steel containers so if you leave your combine with H2 in it there will be none left next year.

[grandadgamer]

It's incredibly energy intensive to produce. No such thing as a free lunch in physics

[sladehelicoptersgaming]

Hydrogen will struggle to replace anything due to the the amount of energy that you have to put into making it, been saying for ages things like wind power should be used to make e-fuels etc

[GeoffHou]

If a combine harvester runs in average at 50% power (300-400hp) he would consume one of these boxy trailers in about 2 hours. When you know that these run 16 hours and more a day in the busy days, you would need 8 of these trailers every day for 1 to 2 months straight.
They better have their own production on site as there is no way they can keep trucking this in.

[christophermyall]

With such high pressure nobody has talked about the tank or hose breaking and the possible explosive effects