There's been a lot of news recently about fuel cells in the material handling industry. I'd like to clear up some misconceptions for the different types of fuel cells available for material handling equipment. I haven't had much exposure to the fuel cells for class 1 equipment, but know that when they are in use, they function well. I've had much more exposure to the fuel cells for class III vehicles from Plug Power and Oorja Protonics. I can say that fuel cells from both companies perform very well, they just go about it differently.

Plug Powers units are hydrogen based and uses highly compressed hydrogen as the fuel source. The unit replaces/eliminates the need for a battery and supplies power for all the vehicle needs. Oorja Protonics units use a liquid alcohol fuel cell at ambient pressure as the fuel source. It's roughly a third the size of the Plug unit and works in conjunction with the existing battery. Per my knowledge, both should fit on most, if not all class III vehicles with battery compartment designed to hold 12-****-13 batteries. However, if the Plug fuel cell unit goes down the vehicle is down; if the Oorja unit goes down, the battery will still be there to power the vehicle. Both take about a minute to refill, Plug with compressed hydrogen and Oorja with liquid alcohol.

Both technologies are new and as with the migration from ICE, it'll take some time to proliferate. I encourage anyone thinking about new class III equipment to look into fuel cell as they are available today.

Oorja has a quick ROI even without subsidies and Plug has lots of government (federal and state) money to help with implementation. I'm not versed in fire and safety codes regarding compressed hydrogen, but I believe with the alcohol fuel, permitting for indoor use is very straight forward.

Hope this clears up some of the confusion and stoke some interest in fuel cells.