Massey Ferguson plans to have a hydrogen powered demonstrator tractor ready by 2026. The engineering department at the Beauvais facility in France is also looking to develop high pressure hydrogen storage tanks for use in other off-road heavy applications.
Storage is a critical component of hydrogen powered off-road machines as the hydrogen needs to be shrunk into a tight space through high pressure to store enough to meet duty cycle requirements. To this end, Agco Beauvais is leading a French consortium to develop an on-board hydrogen storage system. With €4.4 million of funding from the French State, one of the projects aims is to integrate the tanks into a future Massey hydrogen tractor. The demonstrator tractor will be based on the conventional mid hp tractor platform and will leverage the full potential of the Agco Power engine.
“This engine concept will bring significant development cost reductions for the overall tractor because it is built on a familiar design and architecture,” said Frédéric Cavoleau, vice president of engineering at the Beauvais facility. “Moreover, the cooling, transmission and hydraulic systems are similar to these used in diesel engines while seamlessly integrating the newly developed hydrogen tanks under the cab.”
Agco is already developing hydrogen combustion engines through research and development work done at the engine production plant in Nokia, Finland.
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