Fuel Cell Lift Trucks: A Grocer's Best Friend

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://energy.gov/articles/fuel-cell-lift-trucks-grocers-best-friend

Fuel Cell Lift Trucks: A Grocer's Best Friend

December 1, 2011 - 3:21pm

Baldor Specialty Foods, located in the Bronx, New York, has a mission—to provide the finest and the freshest seasonal produce from local farms in the northeast region of the United States and from around the globe. Established in 1991, Baldor has two locations and a successful online ordering system that covers all of New York City and the greater Boston area and is committed to meeting the highest quality standards.

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Enter Oorja Protonics, a fuel cell manufacturing company located in Fremont, California. Founded in 2005, Oorja Protonics has developed a fuel cell that uses a common, readily-available liquid fuel, methanol. Today, Oorja Protonics provides fuel cells for the material handling industry, including 50 lift trucks at Baldor Specialty Store.

Oorja’s fuel cell operates as an on-board battery charger for the lift trucks and the sensors keep the vehicle's battery at a constant state of charge. By eliminating the need for battery swapping and rapid charging, these fuel cells ensure food is transported swiftly and efficiently. Refueling takes less than one minute, improving productivity and supplying enough power for an entire shift.

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Working in conjunction with National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), the Department has been analyzing the performance of Oorja’s fuel cell lift trucks at grocery distributors around the country, including Unified Grocers in the Western United States, Earp Distribution in Kansas City, and Testa Produce, in Chicago. So far, NREL data has shown that Oorja’s fuel cell powered lift trucks can operate for 14 hours -- more than double the autonomy of a battery powered lift truck. In addition, fuel cell powered lift trucks avoid deep discharges —- http://www.hydrogen.energy.gov/pdfs/review11/mt004_ramsden_2011_o.pdf">extending battery life by 50%.

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[Sherman A1]

1. Cool

I use powered lift trucks everyday at work and it's a pain in the rear when you have to wait for them to recharge.

[TheWraith]

2. I used to work at a place where they were propane-powered.

Clean enough for indoor work, although they smelled a little when they went by. But then that was a foundry, not a supermarket.

[OKIsItJustMe]

3. One of the grocery stores nearby has powered grocery carts for the aged/infirm

The other night, I walked by a bunch of them plugged in to be recharged.

I immediately thought of how much more convenient it would have been to simply fill a methanol (or hydrogen) tank.