The 2024 IPWEA Fleet Conference started with a site tour (Sponsored by Kia) to the BOC Bulwer Island facility in Brisbane to see how green hydrogen is being made to supply the five Hyundai fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) operated by QFleet.
BOC is producing renewable hydrogen at its Bulwer Island production site with a 220 kW electrolyser powered by solar energy generated onsite. It is then transported in hydrogen tube trailers to the Linde hydrogen refuelling station located at the bp Port of Brisbane Truckstop.
On a day where the weather resembled Melbourne more than QLD, the 50 delegates were enthralled during the tour of the BOC plant which produces an average of 50 kilograms of green hydrogen each day to supply commercial customers and the small group of hydrogen fuel cell passenger vehicles operating in Brisbane.
The second stop on the Kia Site Tour was the bp Truckstop where delegates were given a demonstration of the refuelling process which takes less than five minutes just like a petrol or diesel fleet vehicles.
The bp Port of Brisbane Truckstop is the first of many hydrogen refuelling locations as part of the hydrogen super highway that was announced at the 2023 IPWEA Fleet Conference.
Marc Sibbald, Director – Fleet at IPWEA, was glad to see so much interest from the delegates for this year’s Site Tour which was moved to the Monday before the official conference opening.
“The Site Tour has become a key component of every IPWEA Fleet Conference because the fleet practitioners like to see fleet management in practice as much as hearing from speakers in the conference program,” said Sibbald.
“This was the first year that we had to restrict the numbers because of the limited space at the BOC facility, and it has been the most popular because the IPWEA fleet community are keen to learn more about hydrogen as a potential low emission fuel source for their heavy vehicle fleets.”
“Also, it was great to see the Hyundai FCEV in person. There aren’t many on the road so they are almost an urban myth. But QFleet were one of the early adopters of this technology and they were to demonstrate how the refuelling process works.”
Delegates finished the tour with a visit to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital to learn how they are converting 380+ fleet pool vehicles to EVs, and the challenges of building enough charging infrastructure onsite to meet the requirements of such a large fleet.
Kellie Williams, Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change Manger at Metro North Health, delivered a brilliant presentation outlining the journey they had been on since the QLD Government told all agencies their fleets must be converted to electric vehicles.
Metro North Health has recently received its 100th electric so they have been working on reducing fleet emissions for several years which inspired many questions from the delegates.
An interesting part of the Metro North Health EV transition was the early adoption of zero emissions gardening equipment including blowers, edge trimmers, ATVs and mowers. Williams said this had delivered so many unexpected benefits to staff and patients that several other health services are copying their transition model.
