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$6m on fuel cells - Pennsylvania retail service center
Fuel Cells, Jan 29 2010 (The Hydrogen Journal)
- Pennsylvania retail service center Wegmans is spending $6m on upgrading its pallet trucks and forklifts from lead acid battery power to fuel cells, according to an article in local newspaper the Republican Herald. The project should be completed by the first quarter of 2011.
"As long as I've been in maintenance there's some things I've never liked about lead-acid batteries, and that's lead and acid. You use a lot of electricity to charge them daily and it took eight hours to charge one," the center's maintenance manager is quoted as saying. "The new hydrogen fuel cells take about two minutes to charge.. They don't emit anything but water and a little bit of heat."
Wegmans received a $1m grant from Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority towards the project. It will also receive 50 per cent of the cost of the fuel cells from the US Federal Department of Energy.
The Center has 100 pallet trucks and 37 forklifts.
The hydrogen to run the fuel cells will be supplied in liquid form by Air Products, based in nearby Allentown. A 9,000 gallon liquid hydrogen fuel tank has been installed.
Each portable unit holds 2kg of hydrogen, and takes about 2 minutes to fuel. It is expected to last for two shifts per fuelling.
