General Hydrogen Corp has sold a hydrogen-powered Hydricity pack to ePower Synergies Inc, to be used in a new forklift as part of a US Army research project.

The Hydricity pack will be used in an 80-volt pneumatic-tyred Hyster forklift that is part of a US Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) project led by the University of North Dakota Energy & Environmental Research Centre (EERC).

Vehicle demonstration activities will take place at Grand Forks Air Force Base, in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

General Hydrogen president & CEO Frank Trotter said his company was working very closely with ePower on the broader evaluation project at the air base.

Bruce Wood, ePower president, said the EERC project involved demonstrating hydrogen fuelled technologies and developing a "field-portable process for producing hydrogen from a common fuel, JP-8 jet fuel", which is used in all military vehicles.

"One objective of this project was to evaluate the performance of a hydrogen fuel cell powered forklift against a conventional propane powered unit, therefore we specified a pneumatic-tyred forklift," Wood said.

Trotter said the forklift being used, an 80-volt Hyster, was unlike the usual 36- or 48-volt solid-tyred North American forklifts.

"Because it's a European-based vehicle, this sale will provide us very useful feedback and experience for our subsequent growth outside North America in the not too distant future," he said.