Air Products, a company having more than 50 years of experience in the hydrogen fueling industry, provides hydrogen fueling technologies to approximately 1,000 units of material handling fuel cell systems functioning in warehouses throughout the U.S.
This represents a significant milestone for the company in the hydrogen fueling industry, and also signifies the benefits offered by the company’s technology in terms of reliability, performance, productivity and environmental sustainability.
Use of material handling equipment and forklifts powered by hydrogen provide several benefits. The hydrogen-powered fuel cell unit has to be refueled only once or twice in a day depending on usage and it does not need time for replacement, whereas traditional battery-powered equipment requires operation to be stopped to recharge or replace battery. The unit offers reliable power strength during application and does not get highly affected by temperature while operating in freezers and coolers. In addition, the hydrogen-powered material handling equipment is environmentally friendly.
GenDrive hydrogen fuel cell system from Plug Power is one of the material handling units powered by Air Products’ technology. The system can be refueled in few minutes, thus preventing the need to charge, store, change and maintain several lead acid batteries for each forklift.
Global Director of Air Products’ Hydrogen Energy Systems, Ed Kiczek stated that they are happy to reach this milestone and new installations in future will double the number of units. He added that the funding offered by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) has been a great support in demonstration projects to prove the benefits of the hydrogen technology.
Source: http://www.airproducts.com/