Long Beach Perfect Venue to Highlight Fuel Cells

Thursday, 22 August 2019 ( #937 )

Fuel cell-powered material handling vehicles are being utilized in a variety of environments - inside warehouses, distribution centers, cold storage facilities, and even outdoors. A prominent outdoor application is at ports, where large amounts of freight are constantly in motion, meaning the short refueling and long operating times of fuel cell vehicles work to provide a full range of benefits to customers. The Fuel Cell Seminar & Energy Exposition (FCS&EE), coming November 5-7 to Long Beach, California, offers a great opportunity to learn about new developments and improvements in fuel cell technology.

Nearby to the Long Beach Convention Center, the host of the FCS&EE, the Port of Long Beach (POLB) and the Port of Los Angeles (POLA) are two of the world's largest and busiest shipping ports. The POLB is one of the FCS&EE sponsors and both ports are involved in several fuel cell drayage truck and material handling vehicle trials from various companies, including Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association (FCHEA) members Toyota, Nuvera, and Hydrogenics. These demonstration projects are helping to prove not only the feasibility, but the many benefits that clean, efficient, and long-lasting fuel cells provide to the logistics sector.

Nuvera, along with its parent company Hyster-Yale Group, are working to provide a top-loading container handler running on a fuel cell system to the POLA. The fuel cell will provide charge to a battery to power the vehicle, intended to overcome difficulties associated with the irregular break times found in port locations.

Ongoing trials of heavier vehicles used within the ports are currently underway, with fuel cell drayage trucks designed by Toyota and Kenmore operating at the POLB. Toyota and multiple partners, including FCHEA member FuelCell Energy, are working to place new hydrogen refilling stations and power generation deployments in both ports to support the vehicles.

For those interested in learning more about how hydrogen and fuel cells are playing important roles in ports around the world, there will be a presentation at the FCS&EE on the H2PORTS trial of both a fuel cell-powered reach stacker and fuel cell yard terminal tractor at the Port of Valencia in Spain. FCHEA member Plug Power and Ballard Power Systems, both fuel cell manufacturers heavily involved in the material handling and logistics space are sponsors of the FCS&EE and will be featured in the morning plenary sessions and exhibit hall. Along with all of that, more general presentations on "The Hydrogen Economy" and "Jobs of the Future" will include material handling equipment.

It is exciting to hold industry events in cities like Long Beach where the clean energy and clean transportation industry is thriving. The FCS&EE in November is the perfect opportunity to showcase the latest global advancements and innovations in fuel cell and hydrogen technologies in one of the leading regions supporting them.

Registration for the 2019 Fuel Cell Seminar is now open. For more information on the Fuel Cell Seminar, please visit www.fuelcellseminar.com.