Material Handling
Global industrial output and trade is growing continuously. All these goods need to be handled in factories, warehouses, airports, harbours and distribution centres. The challenge these sites are facing, is to make the workplace safer, and healthier while maintaining or increasing productivity and without adding costs. Fuel cell technology will help beat these challenges.
Logistic hubs tend to have a high concentration of movements by a limited set of vehicle types. This allows for standardization of power trains and fuel use. Replace diesel powered material handling vehicles by battery powered ones and loose the emissions and the noise. Change over to fuel cell driven ones and you will also keep guaranteed autonomy and fast refuels, while cutting back on the maintenance frequency. Below table provides an overview of the strength and weaknesses of each solution.
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Nedstack PEM FC
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Diesel |
Battery
|
Positive health & safety profile
|
+ |
|
+ |
Fast refuels
|
+ |
+ |
|
Guaranteed autonomy
|
+
|
+ |
|
Affordable scalability of runtime
|
+ |
+ |
|
Fuel flexibility
|
+ |
|
|
Low maintenance frequency
|
+ |
|
|
| Low initial investment |
|
+ |
|
| Low total cost of ownership |
+ |
|
|
| Low noise |
+ |
|
+ |
| No emissions/indoor operability |
+ |
|
+ |
Positive health & safety profile
An environment with many diesel vehicles in continuous operation, is a smelly, noisy and generally unhealthy place. Many operators look for alternatives that eliminate those drawbacks of combustion engines. Both battery and fuel cell operated vehicles are clean and quiet: no emissions, no noise. The low operating temperature of Nedstack PEM fuel cells makes them a safe solution. |
Fast refuels
Despite all benefits of battery-operated systems, they have one major drawback: batteries get depleted and need to be recharged or exchanged. That takes time, and time is not always available in a busy environment. Fuel cells powered vehicles, like those with combustion engines, are fill up and go. Fuel cells also offer the benefit of quick starts and stops. |
Guaranteed autonomy
Another drawback of battery-operated vehicles is the uncertainty about their reach. Both diesel and fuel cell powered vehicles have a predictable autonomy, which only depends on the size of their fuel tank for a given operation profile. |
Affordable scalability of runtime
Extending the autonomous runtime for a battery operated vehicle requires substantial investments. The reach of both diesel and fuel cell driven vehicles is much more scalable. A larger fuel tank size will do the job. |
Fuel flexibility
LPG and diesel are still widely available. However, with fossil fuel prices expected to rise over the coming years, one would wish for more fuel flexibility. Our fuel cells run on pure hydrogen, this can be purchased pure or can be extracted from another fuel, like Methanol, Ethanol, Ammonia, etc using a suitable reformer. Hence, depending on local availability and pricing a site can install one reformer and supply an entire fleet with hydrogen. |
Low maintenance frequency
Nedstack fuel cells are the proven and robust answer to the high demands of the material handling industry. They require little maintenance, have excellent load following characteristics and operate reliably over a range of temperatures and other environmental factors. |
Low initial investment
Next to unfamiliarity, there is one other aspect slowing down the uptake of fuel cell systems: in some cases (compared to when only one set of batteries is needed per vehicle) they still require a higher initial investment (CapEx) than internal combustion engines (ICE) and batteries. At Nedstack, we are working hard to further decrease customer costs. Eventually, fuel cell stacks may become economically competitive from the start. |
Low total cost of ownership
Despite their higher CapEx, material handling systems with Nedstack fuel cell stacks already offer a lower cost of ownership than traditional alternatives, especially in the >10kW range. And isn’t it this total lifetime cost that actually counts? Fuel cells enable long autonomous runs, quick refuels, quick starts and stops, and require little maintenance. Therefore, they result in higher system availability and flexibility and lower running expenses (OpEx). Fuel cell powered vehicles lower costs, and make the work place cleaner, less noisy, safer and more efficient. |
