technologyreview FUEL CELL TECHNOLOGY
Power plays
For one thing, fuel cells cost more to purchase than batteries.
It costs about $10,000 to buy one fuel cell to power a lift
truck. The cost of the fuel cell power pack, which includes the
cell “stack,” storage capabilities, and other necessary but
expensive equipment and systems, is between $32,000 and
$41,000 per truck, though the cost should come down if production ramps up.
A standard lift-truck battery, by contrast, costs between
$3,000 and $4,000. Because the average battery life is about
eight hours, a lift truck that works more than a single shift will
likely require multiple batteries. For example, a vehicle that
works three shifts round the clock will need three batteries to
ensure one is at the ready while the others are recharging.
It is also more costly to power a truck with fuel cells than
with electricity used in batteries. Blake Dickinson, technology manager for AeroVironment Inc., a Monrovia, Calif.-based
company that makes equipment to quickly recharge lift-truck
batteries, estimates a fuel cell-powered lift truck uses three
times more energy than a truck using electricity.
From there, however, the road divides. Proponents of fuel
cell technology maintain that high-volume users, broadly
defined as those operating 50 or more trucks in two or three
shifts in a 24/7 environment, will significantly reduce labor
costs and increase productivity by eliminating the need to
swap out batteries for washing and recharging. It takes, on
average, 10 minutes to change a battery, while it takes about
two to four minutes to fill a cell with hydrogen, according to
data from The Raymond Corp., a leading lift-truck manufacturer. Some say the battery swap-out time can be as long as 30
minutes.
Users will also free up warehouse space previously reserved
for battery storage and changing. They can also expect to
achieve superior run times with their trucks because unlike
batteries, whose voltage drops toward the end of a shift, fuel
cells don’t lose power until the cell is empty, fuel cell advocates contend.
Ryan says the hourly unit cost of maintaining a typical
forklift battery is about $1, compared to 53 cents per hour for
maintaining a fuel cell. He estimates that a warehouse or distribution center operator fitting the high-volume profile can
save 15 percent a year by using fuel cells. This doesn’t include
the intangible environmental benefits that come from using a
“clean” energy source, whose only by-products are water and
heat, Ryan says.
According to an analysis by Raymond, a company operating
a large distribution center with 125 trucks running two shifts
will see an improvement of $3.2 million in its net present
value through labor savings, reduced downtime, and increased
productivity. That offsets the estimated initial $1.3 investment
in outfitting the trucks with fuel cell packs and developing
storage and dispensing systems for the hydrogen, according to
Steven Medwin, manager of systems and advanced engineering, and the official who prepared the analysis. Analyses from
other companies in the fuel cell and lift-truck sectors peg the
