Ohio-based Crown get $1m for hydrogen fuel cell research
When we hear the words "hydrogen highway," we can't help but think about the California initiative to build hydrogen fueling stations in that state. Crown Equipment Corporation, based in New Bremen, Ohio, has announced that the "Hydrogen Highway Leads to New Bremen." The reason is a $1m state grant from the Ohio Department of Development and Ohio's Third Frontier Commission to research hydrogen fuel cells for the company's lift trucks. It seems that fork lifts are really the dark horse in the fuel cell race, with announcements like this and this not exactly rare. Heck, even the President is a big fan.
Crown's million will be used to address "the technical and commercial barriers to the application of available battery replacement fuel cell power packs in industrial lift trucks" through a study of how fuel cell lifts will be made useful in the warehouse. As Crown President Jim Dicke III said in a statement, all those heavy batteries in current lift trucks provide a nice counterweight to whatever is being lifted. Swap those lead acids out for a light fuel cell, and what happens when you try to life a pallet of books? Still, Dicke and others are confident that fuel cell lift trucks are the future. They're not as sexy as the FCX Clarity or the Provoq, but they're probably going to be available much sooner.
[Source: Crown Equipment Corporation]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
rar 2:19PM (4/03/2008)
Sounds like a big waste of money to me. Electric lift trucks work great now.
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KarenRei 3:27PM (4/03/2008)
Yeah, but they don't cost nearly enough to operate, hence the need for hydrogen. ;)
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A.Brien 5:09PM (4/03/2008)
The researchs are finnish and a lot of lift batteries were alresdy replace in the last year. Why pay for researchs that were already done. It's a steal from taxpayers money.
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GoodCheer 6:17PM (4/03/2008)
While there may (just maybe) be a place for fuel cells in the world of transportation, forklifts seems like a PERFECT application for heavy, inexpensive lead-acid batteries: They drive slowly over flat ground, NEED to be heavy, and never need to be very far away from their charger. Why on earth is that a good application for a fuel cell? If anything, for lifts that see heavy duty-cycles it might be worth looking at battery swapping, but fuel cells? Really?
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KarenRei 6:53PM (4/03/2008)
I think it's a perfect example of how hydrogen hype has completely overtaken any semblance of grounding in reality.
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Kevin Nugent 9:14PM (4/03/2008)
I also agree with just giving organizations money . I would rather give them the money and monitor them to see their progress. But hey that require more money so you don't have a win win situation
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Chris M 2:29AM (4/04/2008)
It is a bad idea to replace battery vehicles with fuelcell vehicles, considering the increased purchase cost and reduced efficiency, and considering it won't do anything to reduce oil consumption.
There was a report that claimed the fuel cell forklifts cost less to run than battery forklifts, but that report was highly biased, exaggerating the labor cost and time to swap lead acid batteries, and conveniently ignoring the extra cost of the fuel cells - though they did admit that electrolyzer produced H2 used about 3x more electricity.
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Tim 8:11AM (4/04/2008)
The only place for H2 fuel cells in transportation is in the space where you also need water to drink and weight is more important than system longevity or cost.
H2 forklifts are just foolish period.
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Steve 10:25AM (4/04/2008)
Apparently all you need to siphon away taxpayer money is a system that is horribly inefficient and also eliminates all the benefits of existing technology that's more efficient.
Guys, I'm starting a company to make gasoline-powered lightbulbs. Given the treatment of fuel cell applications I think this could bring in some huge grants from the government. Who's with me?
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Whopper 11:20AM (4/04/2008)
I used to work for a lift truck motor manufacturer who supplied Clark, Crown, Mitsubishi-Caterpillar etc. with DC motors and controls. This fuel cell deal didn't make sense so I called an old collegue at Crown and asked what he was thinking. He said Crown initially wanted no part of this but their major customers (WalMart, Target etc.) wanted to "appear green" and were forcing the issue. He said they would be adding ballast to make the thing work! Once again, engineering is being directed by "business decisions". I'm going to be sick.
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Steve 12:24PM (4/04/2008)
Wow. I thought this was a simple case of a misguided company getting government funding for a foolish project, but I see it's far worse than that.
There's only one thing to do: pool a bunch of money and put ads on TV to illustrate to the public just how un-green (red?) hydrogen is. Until the public perception of hydrogen as a green technology is destroyed, this kind of travesty will continue to happen. Something has got to be done.
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KarenRei 1:24PM (4/04/2008)
"Guys, I'm starting a company to make gasoline-powered lightbulbs."
Perfect analogy; I love it!
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Sebastian 4:21PM (4/07/2008)
Steve,
do you mean something like this?
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2006/10/02/the-onion-scoop-green-conscious-ge-develops-hybrid-lightbulb/
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