Fuel cells under real-world conditions: how good are they?

They are the subject of heated discussion, intense research, and are increasingly deployed under real-world conditions: when considering the propulsion methods of the future, fuel cells are a recurring theme, in intralogistics and elsewhere. What advantages do they have? Where and how are they used today? And where have they been successful? A brief overview of the current state of affairs.

Quick and easy to refuel – and zero local emissions

Fuel cells have one stand-out strength: refueling speed. It takes just 90 seconds to recharge a fuel-cell-powered vehicle. In other words, pit stops are comparable with the world of Formula One, raising the efficiency of multi-shift operations, and boosting productivity.

What’s more, the trucks are easy-to-maintain, easy-to-use, and the cells boast a typical service life of 10,000 hours – in other words, they are capable of reliably moving a huge number of pallets from A to B. And above and beyond these advantages, fuel cells generate zero local emissions, helping to keep the air in warehouses clean and breathable.

We are convinced that, in the near term, hydrogen will become established as a sustainable alternative solution. Based on this belief, we have already developed the broadest portfolio of fuel-cell-driven vehicles.”

Christophe Lautray, CSO, Linde Material Handling

Put through their paces at BMW

So far, so good. But how does this technology perform in practice? Linde Material Handling put fuel cells through their paces in a real-world trial, in association with partners including the BMW Group: five forklift trucks and six tugger trains commenced testing back in 2013 in the car-maker’s production environment. Together, the fleet completed more than 20,000 hours of operation. The results showed that, under certain conditions, fuel-cell warehouse trucks can be cost-effective and successful, even in Germany. 

A comprehensive infrastructure plus interface standardization

Encouraged by the findings, BMW took the next step in early 2019, deploying a further 70 fuel-cell-powered* Linde MH tugger trains. For this ambitious phase, BMW has been cooperating with Munich Technical University and Austrian energy specialist Fronius. The project will focus on hydrogen infrastructure and standardization of interfaces, a plug-and-play solution for vehicle conversion, and service life analysis.

With this fleet experiment, we wish to prove conclusively that the use of hydrogen as a fuel is economically feasible in a number of scenarios.”

Thomas Herndler, CTO, Fronius

The research project is scheduled to run until 2021. It is hoped it will lead to an industrial standard known as H2Ready. The goal is to make this innovative technology more accessible to other companies in their own industrial environments – either installed in entirely new vehicles or as a retrofit to existing trucks.

(Photo: Christoph Busse)

At a glance: An overview of fuel-cell strengths

 

*German only