During a public announcement Dec. 20, Jim Malvaso, Raymond president and CEO; Gunnar Walmet, program director of the Industry and Buildings Research and Development (R&D) Program, NYSERDA; and Steve Medwin Raymond manager of advanced research, shared the study’s current findings.

Early findings in the study indicate that, in comparison with battery-powered lift trucks, hydrogen fuel cell lift trucks maintain comparable performance while significantly reducing refueling time.

The Raymond Corporation began its research of hydrogen fuel cells in January 2007 by using Raymond’s Greene manufacturing facility as a “living lab,” using hydrogen fuel cell-powered Raymond® lift trucks in real applications and using an indoor, fast-fill hydrogen refueling system.

Although Raymond’s testing of fuel cell-powered lift trucks is still in its early stages, the company is sharing some research assessments:

   1. The braking distance and maximum travel and lift speeds of the fuel cell truck are equivalent to that of a battery-powered lift truck.
   2. Refueling the fuel cell truck at an indoor hydrogen refueling station takes only a couple of minutes compared with the up to 20 minutes it takes to remove and replace a battery from the same truck model.
   3. In today’s electric lift truck designs, the battery acts as part of the counterweight. Hydrogen fuel cell components do not weigh the same as heavy lead-acid batteries, so additional weight must be added to the fuel cell unit, and this weight must be distributed within the fuel cell system so the center of gravity is the same as that of the battery it replaces. Future lift trucks may have the fuel cells wholly incorporated into the design of the trucks to address these issues.

Other areas that Raymond is testing, monitoring and analyzing include:

    * Hydrogen consumption and frequency of refueling
    * Operation of the hydrogen infrastructure and refueling
    * The reliability, maintenance and repairability of the fuel cell systems
    * Voltage delivered and how it compares with the specifications for all the electrical components and options on a truck

“Raymond is committed to helping the materials handling industry realize the higher productivity and environmentally clean technology that hydrogen fuel cells can offer,” Medwin says. “We will continue to share the results of our research as it becomes available.”