Methanol fuel cells now available for lift trucks

Oorja Protonics announces its first product—an onboard battery charging system called the OorjaPac—and its first customer.

By Corinne Kator, Associate Editor -- Modern Materials Handling, 3/24/2008

Oorja Protonics—the California company that announced its presence in the fuel cell market last week—has officially launched it first commercial product, the OorjaPac.

The OorjaPac is an onboard battery charging system for lift trucks, pallet jacks and other materials handling equipment. It fits into a lift truck’s existing battery compartment alongside a traditional lead-acid battery and continuously charges the battery as the vehicle operates.

According to Oorja Protonics CEO Sanjiv Malhotra, the unit is truly “plug and play”—it can go straight into a standard electric lift truck and begin working without any need to modify the truck.

The OorjaPac gets its energy from a direct methanol fuel cell. According to the press release announcing the OorjaPac, a four-gallon canister of liquid methanol provides sufficient energy to run a lift truck for two shifts. The truck can then be refueled in a matter of minutes.

The fuel cell emits small amounts of water and carbon dioxide. The water is easily drained off during refueling, says Malhotra, and the carbon dioxide is minimal—far less than that emitted by an internal combustion lift truck.

Like the hydrogen fuel cell units that have captured headlines in recent years, the OorjaPac promises to eliminate the downtime traditionally needed to swap out heavy lead acid batteries. Using fuel cells in lift trucks should also eliminate large battery handling rooms.

New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI), a joint manufacturing facility shared by General Motors and Toyota, has been piloting the OorjaPac and, according to Malhotra, has purchased multiple units.

“In an increasingly competitive global market, savings of even minutes can scale dramatically,” says Ernesto Gonzalez-Beltran, senior VP of manufacturing operations at NUMMI. “OorjaPac is an undeniable technological advance in that it helps us eliminate literally hours of non-productive downtime while reducing our plant’s carbon footprint.”

The OorjaPac will be on display at the upcoming NA 2008 trade show. “We will have a very significant presence at NA,” says Malhotra. “There will be units on display at our booth and at a couple of our partners’ booths.”