Hydrogen fuel cell forklift

From WikiCover

On August 29, 2007, Air Products announced it has signed an agreement with the Defense Logistics Agency's (DLA) Research and Development Program as lead contractor for a two-year demonstration program to develop an indoor hydrogen fueling station technology infrastructure to fuel twenty hydrogen fuel cell-powered forklifts for daily warehouse operations at the Defense Distribution Depot Susquehanna Pennsylvania (DDSP).

Air Products will collaborate with General Hydrogen, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Plug Power, to retrofit twenty battery-powered Class 1 forklifts with General Hydrogen's fuel cell power packs and provide Air Products' hydrogen fueling station technology infrastructure for the pilot program. DDSP personnel will operate the fuel cell-powered forklifts alongside lead-acid battery forklifts in daily operations. Data to compare costs and operational characteristics will be collected and analyzed to support the development and commercialization of hydrogen fuel cell technologies for Department of Defense (DoD) operations.

Hydrogen fuel cell-powered forklifts need refueling, which typically can be completed in less than five minutes, only once or twice daily, depending on use. In contrast, traditional battery-powered forklifts must be placed temporarily out of operation for battery replacement and required battery recharging usually every four to six hours. Hydrogen fuel cell-powered forklifts provide consistent power strength during use and do not have decreased performance or wear down as required battery changeout and recharge time nears. Further, hydrogen-powered fuel cell forklifts are more environmentally friendly, without associated lead-acid battery storage and disposal issues.