Lift trucks: Fuel cells powered by market momentum

So what if you don’t see many fuel cell powered lift trucks among your local dealer’s lines? Don’t interpret that as proof nothing’s happening to add them to your fleet. I just saw a new report (World Fuel Cells) from Freedonia Group, a Cleveland-based industry research firm, which says fuel cell spending worldwide (including R&D funding and commercial sales) will grow to $9.4 billion in 2013, and rise at an 11.0 percent annual pace. 

Judging from what I heard at last week’s 2009 Ohio Fuel Cell Symposium held in Canton, OH, the Buckeye state is doing its part to make these numbers real, thanks in no small way to lift truck R&D.

Lee Fisher, Ohio’s lieutenant governor, voiced respect for what lift trucks mean to his state. He cited the $1 million Ohio awarded Crown Equipment Corp. to develop a running prototype of an integrated fuel cell powered lift truck as the kind of money states have to spend for their own good.

“These kinds of partnerships and collaborations are not luxuries,” he stated. “They’re necessities. We view ourselves as facilitators, investors, but most of all as risk carrying collaborative partners.”

He said that as a result of Ohio’s investments so far the fuel cell industry in the state has received almost $100 million in co-invested and private equity investments and federal grants. The state has been able to create and retain about 250 jobs related to fuel cells at an average salary of about $64,000 and it has attracted $4 in private investment in fuel cells for every $1 the state has expended.

“We’re seizing an opportunity to be among the few states that have portfolio standard requirements that will create a more conducive environment for the development of fuel cell products,” he concluded. 
 

Converting fleets

Currently there are more than 85 fuel cell research projects valued at more than $48 million being conducted at 10 different Ohio academic institutions. In his Symposium talk, Dick Falkner, director of retail operations for Plug Power, chalked that up to the new emphasis on reducing everyone’s carbon footprint. Hydrogen is an important ingredient in that effort.

“We do approximately 300 refuelings a day among the units that are out there,” he explained. “There are 342 [refueling stations] in operation today and in the next 30 days we’ll increase that number by 20% by putting in 70 more units.”

He cited Central Grocers, the Chicago-based food co-op, which has already converted more than 200 lift trucks (mostly pallet trucks) to fuel cell power. It will add Class II lift trucks to that mix the first part of next year. Sysco Foods will be Plug Power’s next fuel cell fleet project, starting with a greenfield DC in Houston by the end of this year.

Costs coming down
 

Greg Moreland, a contractor to the Dept. of Energy’s Fuel Cell Technologies Program, banished any fear that the DOE was backing away from its investment in this technology. There’s been too much progress made in reducing the cost for early adopters.

“The cost has been reduced by nearly 75% compared to 2002,” he said. “It has gone from $275 per kilowatt down to $73 per kw this year. Another area, affecting stack costs, has been reducing the amount of platinum in the fuel cell without decreasing performance.”

The Freedonia study indicates this is a global trend. Commercial sales of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell products and services are forecast to more than triple to $1.2 billion in 2013 and then increase to $3.4 billion in 2018, it says, adding that more organizations are actively working to develop and market PEM systems than any other single fuel cell chemistry, “which will help bolster demand as additional PEM products are commercialized.”

Competition among several fuel cell technologies will keep costs in check, the report concludes. Take Ballard Power Systems, for example. This manufacturer reported it was able to reduce the cost of its FCVELOCITY-9SSL PEM fuel cell stack for material handling applications by 23 percent in 2007 and by another 38 percent in 2008.

But back in the States, according to Greg Moreland, lift truck applications are enjoying an infusion of dollars for research and development. They represent $10.8 million of the total $43 million being spent on fuel cells through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. 
 

Successes at Sysco, Central Grocers and other early adopters in Ohio and around the world are bound to lead to widespread fleet conversions. I think they call that momentum.

Tom Andel
tandel4315@aol.com