“It will be awhile before you see a fuel cell in a tractor,” says Bruce Wood, president of ePower Synergies in Cordova, Ill. Wood was an engineer with Deere & Co. in Moline before starting his own company.

The tractor is likely to be the last farm implement that will use fuel cells. Most of the fuel-cell work is being done in related industries and likely will be transferred into farm equipment, Wood explains.

He predicts use of hydrogen engines is more likely in areas with air-quality concerns and where there is a premium for quietness.

Fuel-cell research is being conducted on forklifts. Most forklifts run on propane. Due to the closed area of a warehouse or factory, air quality is a concern.

Wood says some forklifts are battery-powered. But, it takes a time to recharge a battery and at the end of a shift, the battery starts to run down and drag.
 

Bob Mendlesky, an engineer at the National Hydrogen Engine Center in Algona, talks about a V-10 motor that was remanufactured to run on hydrogen. The motor will be shipped to Germany to power a bus. IFT photo by Tim Hoskins

If the forklift was using hydrogen, Wood says the fuel could be replaced in minutes for hours of use with no productivity drag.

Something like a skid-loader might be one of the first pieces of farm equipment that will run on hydrogen, says Wood.

Another likely candidate is the combine. A typical combine needs 250-400 horsepower and uses two hydraulic motors to drive and operate it. Wood says hydraulic power is only 25-30 percent efficient.

Fuel cells offer much greater efficiency. That gain in efficiency could mean the required horsepower could be reduced, he says.

“Right now, the cost is too high,” Wood says.

He recently converted an ice rink cleaner to run on hydrogen and now is selling them.

Wood also is working on shipping-port cranes and garbage trucks. Fuel cells and hydrogen can be used in cranes and garbage trucks because they can capture some of the energy lost from frequent starting and stopping, he explains.

While Wood is working on fuel cells and hydrogen in related industries, other work is being done to bridge the conversion from oil to hydrogen.

The National Hydrogen Engine Center in Algona is working on one of those technological bridges.

The center is run by Ted Hollinger, a former Ford Motor Co. executive. Hollinger remanufactures engines that will run on different fuel blends, including hydrogen and propane.

“If it will burn, we can make an engine run on it,” says Bob Mendlesky, a former Ford engineer who works for Hollinger.

Engines remanufactured to run on alternative sources of energy are used in irrigation pumps and city buses, among others.

Passenger cars are about the only vehicle that can’t be converted.

Engine compression is one of the major adjustments required for burning hydrogen.

Hydrogen has an octane rating between 130-140. That means the compression needs to be changed from 9:1, which is the ratio in a gasoline engine, to 13:1 to burn hydrogen.

Hollinger believes hydrogen might be the long-term fuel of the future. In the meantime, he is making engines that run on other sources of fuels or blends.

While waiting on fuel cells to make their way into farm equipment, modified internal combustion engines likely will be on the market for a few years.

Infrastructure is the reason it is taking time to switch to fuel cells.

Wood and Hollinger agree hydrogen makes sense to use on the farm.

The center is working with biodiesel to turn it into hydrogen.

Manure produced in livestock operations could also be used as sources of hydrogen,Wood says.

While the sources of hydrogen might be plentiful, one of the greatest benefits might the nonpolluting exhaust from a hydrogen engine — water