Abstract
Compared to battery-powered electric forklifts, fuel cell-powered ones posses higher productivity as they can be refueled in 5 to 10 min, while time to recharge the battery takes 8 h and additional 8 h for cooling down the battery. To ensure 24 h of operation of the battery-powered electric forklift, 2 to 3 battery per forklift is needed. As one battery has volume of ~1 m3, additional space in the warehouse for battery storage should be available. By integrating fuel cell power system onboard electric vehicles, these shortcomings are eliminated; moreover, fuel cell-powered forklifts maintain constant power during their operation as there is no voltage drop as compared to battery. Here, we present fuel cell power pack with integrated metal hydride hydrogen storage for powering 3-ton electric forklift. Liquid-cooled 9SSL PEM fuel cell stack with 75 cells from Ballard was integrated together with air supply, hydrogen storage and supply and liquid stack cooling, and MH heating loop. Developed metal hydride tank has weight of 1200 kg and serves not only for hydrogen storage but also as vehicle ballast. During onboard VDI60 tests, it was observed that power pack has stable operation with energy consumption of 9.564 kWh/h.
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Acknowledgements
This work received financial support from EU Horizon 2020/RISE project “Hydrogen fueled utility vehicles and their support systems utilizing metal hydrides—HYDRIDE4MOBILITY” (project number: 778307).
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Tolj, I., Lototskyy, M., Parsons, A., Pasupathi, S. (2022). Fuel Cell Power Pack with Integrated Metal Hydride Hydrogen Storage for Powering Electric Forklift. In: Kolhe, M., Muhammad, A., El Kharbachi, A., Yuwono, T.Y. (eds) Recent Advances in Renewable Energy Systems. Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, vol 876. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-1581-9_2
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