Hyster has placed a 60 kW hydrogen fuel cell ReachStacker at Rotterdam Shortsea Terminals for a multi-year trial. The RSJ46-33XDH/62 is configured for 45-foot containers and uses a 130 kWh battery. The project also includes a modular refuelling station and training for logistics workers.
What is being tested at Rotterdam?
The trial centres on the RSJ46-33XDH/62, a ReachStacker supplied by Hyster. It will work at Rotterdam Shortsea Terminals (RST), where its main task is handling 45-foot containers. A dedicated spreader has been fitted for those containers. The practical setting lets the project team examine the machine during terminal work.
A fuel cell from Nuvera provides 60 kW of power. It converts hydrogen into electricity, which supplies a 130 kWh lithium-ion battery. In plain terms, the fuel cell generates electricity and the battery stores it for the equipment. Hyster also says its products share a software architecture intended to support consistent operation, diagnostics and maintenance.
How did the project reach this stage?
The Rotterdam deployment follows an earlier Hyster deployment in Valencia, Spain. The current project is a multi-year effort focused on decarbonising heavy-duty material handling. Hyster and RST are among the participants. Berkman Energie Services, STC Next, HarbourHUB and Heffiq, the local Hyster dealer, are also in the consortium.
Funding comes from the Province of South Holland and the EU-co-financed Just Transition Fund (JTF), among others. The supplied account does not specify the total project budget or each funder’s contribution. That means the available information describes who supports the project, but not the value of the support. Hyster experts are working with Heffiq and RST during the project.
What is included beyond the machine?
The team will test a modular hydrogen refuelling station at the Rotterdam site. The source says the station is intended to support operation independent of a supply grid. Its performance and the practical arrangements for refuelling will form part of the work, although no technical specifications for the station are provided.
A joint Experience Centre is another project component. It is intended to train employees, students and logistics experts in the energy transition and in safe, efficient hydrogen handling. This makes workforce preparation part of the trial alongside equipment and refuelling. The source does not give a training schedule, participant numbers or course details.
What remains open during the trial?
The project has yet to report operating results from the Rotterdam deployment. The source gives the machine’s power and battery specifications, but not its range, hydrogen consumption or availability in service. It also does not state how the equipment will compare with other terminal machinery. Those details would help readers assess how it performs in routine container handling.
The duration is described only as multi-year, without a specific end date. No milestones or publication timetable are given for the station test or Experience Centre. The project team’s next evidence will therefore be practical findings from the terminal and training work. Hyster, RST and the wider consortium will need to share those findings for the trial’s outcomes to be assessed.