As part of its mission to support the decarbonisation of the global transport and energy sectors, Ricardo, a world-class environmental, engineering and strategic consulting company, is investing £2.5million to build a hydrogen development and test facility at its Shoreham Technical Centre in the UK.

Designed to support the company’s existing work in hydrogen, fuel cells and green alternative fuels, the new facility will deliver ‘state of the art’ test and development to advance capability in both alternative fuels and electric vehicles. It will significantly increase the range of hydrogen and fuel cell services and solutions which can be delivered to Ricardo’s global customers.

Steve Dyke, Ricardo Automotive and Industrial managing director, said: “We are already working with a range of clients on hydrogen and fuel cell technology, providing clean efficient solutions which reduce carbon and noxious emissions across a wide range of sectors.

“By building our hydrogen fuel cell and propulsion capability, we shall further advance our facilities and technology for clean vehicles across all transport sectors, and increase the range of hydrogen and fuel cell services and solutions that we can offer to our clients.”

A particular focus for the new facility will be a systems-led approach to vehicle development, integrating Ricardo’s enhanced test capability with the company’s leading-edge digital and simulation tools to deliver fully optimised hardware and software system solutions for its customers.

This will further enhance Ricardo’s established digital engineering expertise, allowing the company to provide solutions which are: greener because they are less energy- and resource-intensive; remove risk from development through more efficient, faster digital techniques; and reduce cost and time to market to provide competitive advantage.

This investment is a further boost to Ricardo’s hydrogen capability, following the company’s announcement on 14 January 2021 of a collaboration with AFC Energy plc aimed at identifying new and innovative alternative fuel solutions, including hydrogen power applications.

Fuel cell test facilities with this level of capability to develop and test hydrogen technologies are rare to find globally, so this investment will accelerate Ricardo’s position as a leader in the application of hydrogen within transport and stationary power.