Nuvera Fuel Cells

By Gus Block, Director of Marketing
Nuvera Fuel Cells

The Annual Meeting of the Industrial Truck Association (ITA) was held in Scottsdale, Arizona from October 2 through 5. ITA is a trade association representing lift truck manufacturers and their suppliers in North America. In 2004, Nuvera was the first fuel cell company to join ITA, which shortly thereafter established the Fuel Cell Working Group to address technical, legal, and regulatory issues associated with the use of fuel cells on lift trucks. One of the first actions of the Working Group was to compile a white paper, entitled, “Fuel Cell Technology for Industrial Truck Applications.”

Since that time, fuel cells have captured an increasing share of the ITA’s attention and agenda. The activities of the original Fuel Cell Working Group have continued under a newly established Energy Storage Systems Subcommittee, which is drafting a Recommended Practice (RP) covering the use of lead acid battery ‘emulators’ such as fuel cells on electric lift trucks. The new RP will pave the way for the adoption of fuel cell technology by providing specific guidelines for truck manufacturers. Over the next 2 years, the RP will likely become the basis of amendments to the major codes and standards affecting lift truck operation and safety published by Underwriter’s Laboratory (UL), the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA), and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

John Christensen, formerly of the Naval Surface Warfare Center, addressed the ITA regarding the DOE Hydrogen Program’s Early Market Transformation Activities. He noted that DOE sees material handling and backup power as the two primary applications where fuel cells offer a viable value proposition for customers TODAY. Ultimately, DOE’s interest is to spur the adoption of fuel cells in these ‘early markets’ in order to stimulate production volumes, and ultimately reduce the cost to the point where fuel cells are viable for widespread use in automobiles.

Dr. Deirdre Meldrum, Dean of the Fulton School of Engineering at Arizona State University, has been announced as the keynote speaker for the Women in Fuel Cells inaugural luncheon, taking place at the Fuel Cell Seminar in Phoenix, Arizona on October 29.

Women in Fuel Cells is an organization focused on celebrating and furthering the contributions women have made in the science, engineering, marketing and deployment of fuel cells around the world.

If you are already registered for the Fuel Cell Seminar and would like to add the luncheon, please email fuelcell@courtesyassoc.com and indicate you would like to add the lunch.  If you are not attending the Fuel Cell Seminar but would like to attend the luncheon, click here to get a free exhibit hall pass and then have the option to sign up for the luncheon.  The group is open to men and women, so all are invited!

By Bill Mitchell, VP of Marketing
Nuvera Fuel Cells

This past Tuesday, I had the opportunity to take part in a Massachusetts Hydrogen Association Clean Energy Forum entitled “Creating a Clean Transportation Future”. Along with me on the panel were Stephen Costa of the U.S. Department of Transportation, and Sheila Lynch of the Northeast Advanced Vehicle Consortium.

About 50 people were in attendance for the discussions. Maybe it was a result of our high gas prices, or our economic troubles (or both), but based on the feedback from the audience, there was lot of interest in how we could most effectively and expeditiously transition ourselves off of imported oil and towards a form of transportation that is more sustainable, that also keeps money inside the U.S. (rather than flowing to other areas of the world).

My presentation dealt mostly with the identification of early markets that are not only interesting as markets unto themselves, but that can also act as a catalyst to accelerate the introduction of clean transportation. Because Nuvera is a fuel cell company, as one can imagine, I kept my comments in the area of fuel cell vehicles. The basis hypothesis of my talk was as follows: I believe that not only is the fuel cell forklift market interesting from a business standpoint, but this is also an early market that can accelerate the adoption of fuel cell cars.

To make the case for my hypothesis, consider the following. As shown in the graph below, a typical forklift drive cycle is very similar to an urban drive cycle that a fuel cell car would encounter. Because of this similarity, the fuel cell technology and system design between the forklift and the car will, by necessity, be similar (the car having more power, of course).

In a given year, a fuel cell forklift will operate for approximately 5,800 hours. If these hours are integrated into an automotive drive cycle, a year of forklift operation effectively simulates approximately 125,000 miles of driving. In this sense, you can consider the forklift operation as an accelerated durability test for a fuel cell car. During this year of operation, the forklift will need to be refilled about 700 times, and it will consume about 1000 kg of hydrogen.

Get a few thousand fuel cell forklifts in operation and the numbers start to add up. Very quickly you will have a lot of field data that can be directly translated to the automotive fuel cell market. Before the first fuel cell car ever “hits the streets” we could have millions of equivalent miles of data and operation in the forklift market. Further, the hydrogen dispensing experience would directly translate so that by the time fuel cell cars come about, the hydrogen dispensers will have been in operation for several years, performing hundreds of thousands of successful refueling events.

Early market applications like the fuel cell forklift market will help develop the technology and supply chain required for successful fuel cell cars, and educate customers to the advantages of fuel cells and hydrogen. Without a doubt, this will help accelerate the future of clean transportation.

Overall, the audience agreed with my hypothesis. What do you think?

The Green Italy exhibit officially opened last night with an opening reception at Terminal E in Logan Airport. Remarks were made by Massport CEO Thomas J. Kinton, Jr., Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Daniel O’Connell, Comissioner of the Department of Energy Resources Phillip Giudice, Speaker of the House Sal Dimasi and Ambassador of Italy to the U.S. Giovanni Castellaneta.

Green Italy is a three month long exhibit showcasing Italian and Massachusetts’ collaborative efforts for a greener tomorrow.  Nuvera Fuel Cells is displaying a fuel cell powered Fiat Panda, on loan from the town of Mantova in Italy. The car, which runs on Nuvera’s Andromeda fuel cell stack, has been in daily civic use in the town since September, 2007.

The exhibit is scheduled to run through December 15 in Terminal E. Exhibit stands are on the arrivals level outside of customs, and the hydrogen Panda is on the departures level across from the ticketing counters. For more information, log on to http://greenitaly.info.

The crowd at the event.  There was a varied mix of attendees, from interested MIT students to airport employees to seasoned environmental buffs.  There was something for everyone to learn.

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Ambassador Castellaneta addressing the crowd.

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Ambassador Castellaneta and our CEO Roberto Cordaro.  Something I learned at the event:  Roberto, in addition to speaking English and Portuguese (he is from Brazil), also speaks fluent Italian!

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Speaker of the House Sal Dimasi.

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A man at Nuvera’s booth.

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Ambassador Castellaneta speaking with Francesco Fragasso, our VP of Finance and Administration, about the fuel cell Panda.  The feedback on the Panda from travelers has been very positive, with the most common question being “when can I buy one?”

We’re working on it!

Stop by Terminal E and check out our booth and the hydrogen Fiat, both are outside of security and accessible to everyone.

I wanted to call your attention to a new group that has been founded within the fuel cell arena, titled Women in Fuel Cells.

The charter and mission statement are still being finalized, but the general gist is to celebrate and promote women and young ladies in the field of engineering, and specifically, fuel cells.  If you are like me (1, a woman, and 2, working in fuel cells) you are probably only one of a handful of women in your company or organization.  As someone joked on the steering committee call, “it’s nice to never have to wait in the bathroom line,”  but it would be even better if we saw the numbers of our female brethren increase.

The group will be having a kickoff luncheon at the Fuel Cell Seminar on October 29th from 12:00 to 2:00 pm, and all are welcome.  Membership is open to men and women!