ExxonMobil onboard with hydrogen fuel for lift trucks

Generating hydrogen onboard will make fuel cells an option in markets where hydrogen delivery is not available.

By Corinne Kator, Associate Editor -- Modern Materials Handling, 11/21/2007

ExxonMobil and a group of technology partners are collaborating to develop an on-vehicle hydrogen production system for fuel cell-powered lift trucks. The plan is to convert liquid fuels—gasoline, diesel, ethanol or biodiesel—to hydrogen onboard the truck where it will then be used in a fuel cell powertrain.

ExxonMobil, QuestAir Technologies (a company that develops gas purification systems) and Ben Gurion University have already developed the individual components of the fueling system with passenger vehicles in mind. A fourth partner, Plug Power, will now work with them to adapt the components for use in lift trucks.

Plug Power executives expect development to take at least three years.

Most of today’s hydrogen-powered lift trucks are fueled by compressed hydrogen. Much of that compressed hydrogen, says Plug Power executive Tom Hoying, is reformed from natural gas at a central facility and then delivered to customers via tube trailers.

Generating the hydrogen from conventional fuels onboard the truck, says Hoying, makes hydrogen fuel cells an option in markets where hydrogen delivery is not available.

If development is successful, the new technology should offer all the benefits fuel cell makers have been touting—increased productivity, space savings and reduced fueling time compared to battery-powered trucks—without the need for new hydrogen infrastructure.

The technology will make efficient use of conventional fuels. ExxonMobil researchers say it has the potential to be up to 80% more fuel efficient than today’s internal combustion engines with 45% lower carbon dioxide emissions.