With the need to reduce carbon emissions becoming more pressing by the day, every incremental step counts. In the UAE, while the government has announced its goal for the country to reach Net Zero carbon emissions by 2050, achieving that target will need to be a public-private collaboration. Al Ghandi Auto understands this and fully supports the UAE’s mission.
As part of this initiative, the company has installed hydrogen generators at its stockyard in Dubai to power the chargers for its electric vehicles.
Explaining the initiative and the thought behind it, Ahmed Abdelfattah from Al Ghandi’s Business Development division, says: “The UAE has announced its goal to reach Net Zero carbon emissions by 2050. At Al Ghandi, we take that seriously. We think we are a part of that national mission. Our vision and mission is in sync with that of Dubai. As part of our corporate social responsibility, we though that we need to take action towards this target.
“The best way we could do it was to implement out hydrogen project, under which we installed and operated two hydrogen gensets inside our stockyard for the purpose of charging our EV cars while also reducing the carbon impact of doing so by using clean electricity with zero emissions.”
Explaining how the process works at the Al Ghandi Auto stockyard, Abdelfattah adds: “We obtain the supply of hydrogen in cylinders from a local supplier called Airtech. The hydrogen is delivered under high pressure in the cylinders, which we store in our yard at a designated safe area. We usually have around 16 cylinders in storage at most times.
“However, our twin hydrogen gensets would be damaged by the supply of pressurised hydrogen and cause a safety hazard, so the cylinders are first connected to a distributor which acts as a safety valve. It depressurises the hydrogen and allows it to flow smoothly from the cylinders to the genset, while ensuring a safety barrier between the two.”
On-demand clean electricity at Al Ghandi Auto premises
A useful feature of the gensets is that they produce electricity on demand when tuned on, Abdelfattah explains.
Detailing the process, he adds: “First, the electricity is provided by the internal storage battery in the genset, which means the hydrogen consumption is zero initially. Then, when the internal battery’s charge gets low, the hydrogen generator kicks in to charge the internal battery and deliver the electricity to the load at the same time.
“The load to be charged – an EV battery in our case – is connected to the EV charger point and the electricity starts being generated only once we plug in the charger to the EV charging socket.”
This not only ensures safety, Abdelfattah emphasises, but also leads to more economy, with the hydrogen gensets only working on an on-demand basis.
Sourced from quality suppliers
The gensets themselves are advanced units from the French brand EODev, and Abdelfattah explains that there were no shortcuts taken in the selection of the units, and Al Ghandi put safety, reliability and quality at the forefront when selecting the genset supplier.
“We are using gensets from the well-known French brand EODev, who apply the most advanced technologies in the hydrogen fuel cell sector. Inside the generator, the fuel cell itself is from another notable brand – Toyota. So, you can see that no effort was spared to get the best machines and components for this project,” Abdelfattah reveals.
“We can monitor and operate the gensets remotely as it has full software connectivity. It has zero emissions, zero vibration and almost zero noise. The power rating of the genset is a substantial 110KVA . The hydrogen flows inside the fuel cell along with the intake of oxygen from the atmosphere, then an electrochemical reaction takes place with which the electricity is generated. And the only exhaust is drops of water. The hydrogen consumption varies according to the load and also depends on whether the units are on standby or in continuous operation.”
Al Ghandi is using the gensets to power the EV chargers at its stockyard, and Abdelfattah further explained that they use the clean energy source to charge the brand new EV cars that the company sells from the GMC, Cadillac, Hummer, LYRIQ, Chevrolet and other brands.
Importantly, Al Ghandi’s own fleet of Chevrolet Bolt EV models are also charged by these hydrogen genset. These cars are used by the company’s staff, perform as display and roadshow vehicles, and also chip in into recovery and service operations.
Al Ghandi committed to UAE’s sustainability goals
In an announcement about the installation of the gensets, a statement from Al Ghandi had said: “The successful installation and operation of the two hydrogen gensets demonstrates our unwavering commitment towards the local and global community. Al Ghandi Auto is completely aligned with our leadership’s goals for the UAE’s sustainable development and is already making strides to secure a better tomorrow for future generations.”
The installation of the advanced hydrogen gensets is only the beginning of the company’s efforts to incorporate sustainable energy solutions into UAE market, Abdelfattah adds.
“That’s why we have created Al Ghandi Sustainability Company, and we are in the process of becoming the distributor for these hydrogen gensets, where we will be able to take it to the whole UAE market,” he says, speaking of the future vision.
“We will provide the gensets and aftersales support including the installing and commissioning. And we can also provide the hydrogen supply through our partners, thus making it a turn-key solution.”