In March, Massey Ferguson revealed it and five other French companies are developing hydrogen storage tanks to be used in tractors and other off-road vehicles.
The Massey Ferguson hydrogen tractor is scheduled to be built in time for demonstrations sometime in 2026.
This innovation supports “a positive impact on our communities by reducing our operations’ as well as our farmers’ environmental footprint to secure a sustainable world for future generations,” Thierry Lhotte, VP & managing director for Massey Ferguson Europe & Middle East, said in a statement.
Storage appears to be a main challenge in hydrogen vehicle development. Hydrogen has more energy density than diesel but is less dense in terms of volumetric energy.
“Hydrogen’s tiny molecules make it prone to leakage, and it must be stored at either extremely high pressure or very low temperatures – both of which demand significant energy input,” says Horizon Educational, which provides science kits and other teaching materials to schools. “This makes efficient hydrogen storage a daunting engineering task.”