Forklifts

Railways

The use of fuel cells in railways is considered particularly for non-electrified railway lines. In electric trains, the useof fuel cells is generally less attractive than in buses because the power requirements differ completely. Theshape of the power demanded as a function of time is more rectangular than the driving cycle of city buses: full loadand zero load – which are in regions of lower fuel cell system efficiency – occur more frequently. Therefore, theachievable fuel reduction is considered to be less than 10% in certain railway applications. [5]

Fuel cell powered forklifts are one of the largest sectors of fuel cell applications in the industry. Most fuel cells used for material handling purposes are powered by PEM fuel cells, although some direct methanol fuel forklifts are coming onto the market. Fuel cell fleets are currently being operated by a large number of companies, including Sysco Foods, FedEx Freight, GENCO (at Wegmans, Coca-Cola, Kimberly Clark, Sysco Foods, and Whole Foods), and H-E-B Grocers. [10]

Fig. 9 - Toyota’s fuel cell powered forklift

Fuel cell powered forklifts provide significant benefits over both petroleum and battery powered forklifts as they produce no local emissions, can work for a full 8 hour shift on a single tank of hydrogen, can be refueled in 3 minutes and have a lifetime of 8–10 years. Fuel cell powered forklifts are often used in refrigerated warehouses as their performance is not degraded by lower temperatures. Many companies do not use petroleum powered forklifts, as these vehicles work indoors where emissions must be controlled and instead are turning towards electric forklifts. Fuel cell forklifts offer greenhouse gas, product lifetime, maintenance cost, refueling and labor cost benefits over battery operated fork lifts.[11]

Дата добавления: 2014-12-24