By Gus Block, Director of Marketing

In this era of government cutbacks, there’s welcome news about support that’s available for fuel cell-powered vehicles. In order to promote the adoption of energy-saving Read more…

Modern Materials Handling published an overview of the fuel cell industry, and I pulled out 3 of the top quotes.  Find out what they are after the jump. Read more…

In addition to our fuel cell forklift proving ground in Topton, Pennsylvania, Nuvera has recently begun testing of its ReadyPower power pack here in our Billerica facility. The focus is on acceleration and braking, with special attention being paid to the regenerative braking system in place on most forklift trucks today. These tests will allow optimization of the hardware that Deka and Nuvera use to absorb the braking energy created (ReadyPower doesn’t have the large battery presence that traditional lead acid batteries do, as it stores its electricity in the form of hydrogen).

Pictured on the forklift is Aaron Harris, our Environmental, Health and Safety Coordinator.

Representative Niki Tsongas organized an event on Monday titled “Green, Clean and Sustainable – Economic Development for the 21st Century. 

At the meeting, which attracted about 75 people, she spoke about her desire to partner with green energy companies in the fifth districtof Massachusetts, to do what she can to help companies like ours grow both in market share and in employees.  An interesting bon mot that she offered to the audience: the green sector in Massachusetts employs over 14,000 people!  She also offered “As we seek solutions to our nation’s energy crisis, there are several innovative employers right in our backyard that are producing the alternative energy technologies which will help limit our foreign oil dependence and the harmful effects of climate change, while simultaneously creating outstanding green collar jobs for residents of the Fifth District.  The Merrimack Valley is fertile ground for the further growth and development of these jobs and this economic development conference that I am hosting will bring together job creation and environmental experts with leaders in our communities to discuss the steps that should be taken in order to encourage the further growth of this industry in our region.”

Bill Mitchell, our vice president of sales and marketing, participated in a panel titled “Green in the 5th – what did it take?” discussing Nuvera’s move last June from Cambridge to Billerica. On the panel with Bill were other area leaders in the solar, power electronics, and filtration industries.  The general consensus was that Massachusetts is a great place to live, and to attract and find talented people due to the numeraous universities inthe area.

The keynote speaker was Secretary Ian A. Bowles, Commonwealth of Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affiars who among other points of discussion, hinted at an upcoming clean energy bill that would be announced in the Commonwealth - more to come on this issue soon!.

By Danielle Andre and contributing editors
Scott Blanchet, Platform Leader, Fuel Cell Development and
Amedeo Conti, Lead Engineer, Stack Design

As I was sitting in the monthly review of our Fuel Cell Stack Development team, a topic caught my ear. While the majority of information parlayed in this particular meeting falls under the category of intellectual property and therefore cannot be posted here (as you can imagine), there is some interesting work being done in regards to coolant that is fit to share.

Fuel cells create electricity through an electrochemical reaction between hydrogen on the anode side and oxygen on the cathode side. During the reaction heat is produced and a liquid coolant is required to control temperature. Managing the electrical conductivity of the fluids within the cell is extremely important in order to avoid current leakage and short circuiting. Deionized water typically has low electrical conductivity, making it an effective coolant for fuel cell stacks; the obvious downside to using water is that it freezes at typical winter temperatures. This is a sizable hurdle for fuel cells that are aimed at the automotive market.

Traditional (internal combustion engine) automotive systems are cooled with ethylene or propylene glycol, for just this reason. Glycol has a significantly lower freeze point than water, which is what allows our cars to start on those cold New England mornings. The issue with glycol is that it can have a high electrical conductivity rating, resulting in excessive corrosion within the fuel cell stack.

Nuvera has taken a serious look at the tradeoffs in the water vs. glycol debate: water is a low cost and effective solution, but is tricky when dealing with cold start applications. Glycol is only effective when used in conjunction with a deionizing filter which adds cost, but may help enable achievement of the holy grail in fuel cells – a timely cold start.
The glycol debate is nothing new inside Nuvera – our automotive stack, Andromeda™, is designed to be compatible with glycol, utilizing standard automotive parts. What we are determining now is the best glycol/water solution to produce the results we want, how to optimize our systems to run on glycol, and verifying the robustness of our systems when run on this glycol based coolant. If our findings resolutely show that glycol is the preferred coolant, you may see it in not only in our automotive products, but also in our PowerFlow™ system, maximizing performance in the forklift cold storage market.