When will the Fuel Cells hit the market in the U.S.?

Lead going up and fuel cells going down. Look out for Plug Power and Deka/Nuvera. Lead acid batteries will be replaced in forklifts in the near future.

dougster

Plug Power will be one of the biggest producers of Fuel Cells for Industrial lift trucks. Plug Power recently bought out Cellex which make the smaller 24 volt fuel cells for pallet moving trucks. Plug Power announced on 4/18/2007 that it is in the process of trying to buy out General Hydrogen. General Hydrogen presently makes 36 and 48 volt fuel cells for the stand-up/reach trucks and the sit-down (hyster style) lift trucks. This will complete the class 1, 2 and 3 fuel cells. This would make them the fuel cell leader in the United States. The only other company that may have a product out soon could be Deka/Nuvera. They are presently trying to perfect the class 2 (36v) fuel cell which is still being tested at the Deka battery plant. The General Hydrogen fuel cell power packs are presenty being used by the hundreds through-out the United States with little to no problems. The Price however is still a problem. The traditional batteries are cheaper to operate at this time but the pendulum is rapidly swinging to the fuel cells favor.

Plug Power will be one of the biggest producers of Fuel Cells for Industrial lift trucks. Plug Power recently bought out Cellex which make the smaller 24 volt fuel cells for pallet moving trucks. Plug Power announced on 4/18/2007 that it is in the process of trying to buy out General Hydrogen. General Hydrogen presently makes 36 and 48 volt fuel cells for the stand-up/reach trucks and the sit-down (hyster style) lift trucks. This will complete the class 1, 2 and 3 fuel cells. This would make them the fuel cell leader in the United States. The only other company that may have a product out soon could be Deka/Nuvera. They are presently trying to perfect the class 2 (36v) fuel cell which is still being tested at the Deka battery plant. The General Hydrogen fuel cell power packs are presenty being used by the hundreds through-out the United States with little to no problems. The Price however is still a problem. The traditional batteries are cheaper to operate at this time but the pendulum is rapidly swinging to the fuel cells favor.

Plug Power, Plug Power, Plug Power. This will be one of the biggest players of Fuel Cells for Industrial lift trucks. Plug Power recently bought out Cellex which make the smaller 24 volt fuel cells for pallet moving trucks. Plug Power announced on 4/18/2007 that it is in the process of buying out General Hydrogen. General Hydrogen presently makes 36 and 48 volt fuel cells for the stand-up/reach trucks and the sit-down (hyster style) lift trucks. This will complete the class 1, 2 and 3 fuel cells. This will make them the leader in the United States. The only other company that may have a product out soon could be Deka/Nuvera. They are presently trying to perfect the class 2 (36v) fuel cell which is still being tested at the Deka battery plant. The General Hydrogen fuel cell power packs are presenty being used in the hundreds through-out the United States with little to no problems. The Price however is still a problem. The traditional batteries are cheaper to operate at this time but the pendulum is rapidly swinging to the fuel cells favor.

The url is fuelcellsworks(dot)com

CowboysFan needs to get educated. Go to www.fuelcellsworks.com when you get a chance. This will wake you up and bring you up to speed with what's going on with hydrogen technology. There will be other alternatives to oil such as wind power, tide power, current power and of course solar energy. I don't work for a Fuel Cell Company, I just know where the future is going. Also look up DOE (department of energy) web site.

I think Dougee works for a fuel cell producer and is spurring on conversion. Its Funny how they say the fuel cell will reduce our dependency on oil, it is only replacing the battery. Reminds me of the 2YK issue, buy new computers, its just buy new technology now.
No drought it sounds attractive, but it is mostly sizzle and no steak. I predict, that we will see the battery technology improve and stem the tide of this fuel cell frenzy.
We need something to replace OIL, not batteries.

Does anyone have any information on mass production dates for Forklift Fuel Cells? General Hydrogen, Plug Power (cellex), Deca (nuvera) and Hydrogenics presently have them in the field for testing. The future for Forklifts using Fuel Cells is almost here.

Get ready for a huge impact in the industrial truck industry. The economy is getting ready to go Hydrogen. If you snooze you could lose. The Fuel Cells will start being mass produced starting in 2007. Too many un-informed people in the Forklift Industry don't understand the benefits of using Hydrogen powered lift trucks for their application.

The cost will come down. If you factor all the savings involved today, with a big operation warehouse, you would have a big eye opener. No changing batteries, eliminating battery rooms, space cost, electric, extra batteries, more production, more production time by operators, less overtime, less maintenance cost and more.

This technology is perfect for the larger distribution centers. The cost will come down once this takes off which will make Fuel Cells the Industrial Truck power of the near future.

General Hydrogen already has customers that ordered those Ballard Fuel Cells. Look for at least 6,000 more made next year.

Just received a e-newsletter from Material handling Management magazine and it has and article titled "Fuel Cells for Material Handling" that basically announces that Ballard Power Systems signed and "agreement" with General Hydrogen Corp to supply 2,900 fuel cells. But further in the article it mentions that Ballard has shipped 100 fuel cells year-to-date.

Contracting for 2,900 after selling just 100 in nine months just doesn't add up. My cynical side (the only side I have) suspects this is just a bogus agreement created with the intent of giving the perception that fuel cells in material handling are taking off much faster than they actually are.

Just looking for other opinions here. Based on what has already been said in this forum and industry people I have talked to, fuel cells show some promise in lift trucks but still have a few hurdles to get over (mainly cost issues) before we would start seeing these kinds of numbers.

Sorry I can't provide a link to the article (my biggest gripe with this forum). I don't believe google has indexed the page yet so a web search doesn't appear to work either. And surprisingly I couldn't even get it by using the search feature an Material Handling Management's website. You can go to their website mhmonline and then paste this /viewStory.asp?nID=5121 after the com part.

Hydrogen forklift batteries seem to be on hold. The interest seemed to shift once again to automotive vehicles. Honda, GM and Toyota are moving forward implementing fuel cell use in the world. China will most likely be the first to mass use fuel celled vehicles. Forklifts will use them to, once the price comes down and Hydrogen gas becomes easily available.

Fuel Cells in the near future for Forklifts. Batteries will continue to go up in price 10% or more per year, while Fuel Cells will continue to get cheaper to make. The key to the Fuel Cells sucess is to make Hydrogen Gas easy to get.

Strange. First you say it is not a money problem. In the next sentence you say let´s talk about the cost...

If you say that using fuel cells today would not be cost effective you might be right although having to charge jundreds of batteries on the worst time of the day from an economical viewpoint might not exactly be for free either. Electrolyzing the hydrogen on site nighttime might actually turn the dog into a brilliant chef that makes something much tastier of the steak.. :)

No, I think the usage of fuel cells lies in a not too distant future. The oil is not getting any cheaper and the demand for CO2-free fuels by governments e t c is pushing also. But the key issue is - if fuel cells are going to be the "green alternative" then the energy for making the H2 has to originate from renewable sources although there might be a transition period when H2 is derived from natural gas. In combination with fuel cells the efficiency of renewable sources increases because the hydrogen can be produced both day and night.