Nuvera Fuel Cells to Provide PowerTap to Raymond for Forklift Fleet Demonstration
25 January 2007
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| The PowerTap hydrogen generation system. Click to enlarge. Source: Nuvera. |
Nuvera Fuel Cells will supply a PowerTap PTH-12 hydrogen refueling system to The Raymond Corporation to support working fuel cell powered forklifts at their manufacturing facility in Greene, NY. (Earlier post.) The PowerTap PTH-12 will refuel a variety of fuel cell powered forklift trucks in an indoor setting.
The PowerTap PTH-12 is a cascade storage, compression and dispensing system, able to provide useable hydrogen either from a third party gas distributor or from the Nuvera PowerTap hydrogen generation system that uses steam reforming of natural gas.
Nuvera has partnered with QuestAir for the hydrogen purification system (Pressure Swing Absorption—PSA) element of the PowerTap generation system.
The compressor is a hydraulic intensifier that feeds the three-bank cascade storage/dispensing system at a peak operating pressure of 455 Bar (6,500 psig). The cascade, storage and dispense system provides a consistent fill pressure, up to 350 Bar (5,000 psi), with the average fill time for an industrial forklift taking under five minutes.
Beginning in 2007, Raymond’s Greene, NY, manufacturing facility will become a “living lab,” for hydrogen fuel cell modules powering Raymond forklifts in the facility. The goal of the program is to study the performance of hydrogen fuels in electric forklifts and to demonstrate the safety of a hydrogen-fueled forklift environment.
Expected outcomes include a working indoor hydrogen refueling station (provided by Nuvera) and documented best practices for the design and application of indoor hydrogen refueling systems.
Nuvera Fuel Cells is a developer of multi-fuel processing and fuel cell technologies. In October 2006, Nuvera Fuel Cells received a $4.875-million grant from the Federal Transit Authority (FTA) through the Northeast Advanced Vehicle Consortium (NAVC) for a hydrogen fuel-cell bus and refueling demonstration project at Logan International Airport. This project will be the first fuel-cell bus demonstration in Massachusetts and is part of the National Fuel-Cell Bus Program. (Earlier post.)
Nuvera, owned by Amerada Hess, Gruppo de Nora and Renault, entered a multi-year agreement at the end of 2005 with Fiat Powertrain Technologies and Centro Ricerche Fiat to research and develop a high-efficiency hydrogen fuel-cell propulsion system for fuel-cell vehicles.
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Why not just run the fork lifts on the natural gas? Happens all over the world, low emissions of particulates and NOx, low CO2. Seems to be completely pointless.
Posted by: John Baldwin | 25 January 2007 at 08:09 AM
John: If you are running these inside you don't want any emissions at all.
Posted by: Neil | 25 January 2007 at 11:16 AM
Sae reason walmart is going fuel cell and why most lift trucks are lead acid right now. They cart stuff from the loading dock to the various places inside the store. You realy dont want a normal engine in there.
Posted by: wintermane | 25 January 2007 at 02:38 PM
Toyota makes a CNG fueled fork lift that is fine to use inside...
http://www.toyotaforklift.com/about_us/news/press_releases/0079.aspx
Toyota's new CNG Fuel System option carries the Underwriters Laboratory (UL) listing and is certified to meet strict hydrocarbon, oxides of nitrogen, and carbon monoxide emission level regulations mandated by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and California Air Resources Board (CARB).
The CNG fork lift has a far better 'Well to Wheel' CO2 performance than the fuel cell one.
Posted by: John Baldwin | 27 January 2007 at 12:34 PM