Four Scandinavian industrial companies are working with Norwegian-headquartered research organisation SINTEF on a fuel cell system that could cut CO2 emissions drastically.

The "mini-power station", being developed by Volvo Technology AB, StatoilHydro ASA, H2 Logic AS, Powercell Sweden AB and SINTEF, is initially targeted at heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) and forklift applications.

According to SINTEF, an intensively used diesel forklift can produce CO2 emissions equivalent to that produced by eight cars. Meanwhile, 600,000 of the 2.3 million HGVs on the road in the US alone are fitted with sleeping alcoves. The diesel engines in these vehicles are kept in neutral to supply power for heating, air-conditioning, lighting, fridges and TVs. The HGVs are estimated to run in neutral for 1,800 hours a year, thus collectively generating more CO2 than the total emissions by all Norwegian road transport in a year.

According to Svein Tønseth from SINTEF corporate communications, one of SINTEF's partners, Powercell Sweden AB, has started developing a "mini-power station" for HGVs using the Scandinavian fuel cell. The system aims to eliminate a very large proportion of HGVs' CO2 emissions when they run in neutral.

"This was the background for AB Volvo and its Scandinavian partners starting to develop the new fuel cell system. The Scandinavian energy research sector found that this was a very interesting concept, and have invested NOK 4.4 million (USD719,781) in the project," Tønseth explains.
"Fuel cells of this type will also find other applications. At first, the Scandinavian fuel cell will be adapted for use in pleasure boats," he adds.

The new Scandinavian fuel cell system will be specially developed for operation at sub-zero temperatures. Forklifts powered by it can be operated outdoors in the cold Scandinavian winter, and in cold stores.

Meanwhile, US companies Airgas Inc and Nuvera Fuel Cells Inc have announced a five-year marketing, sales and service agreement to provide PowerTap hydrogen generators and stations to the North American materials handling market.

Nuvera will manufacture the PowerTap systems and Airgas will provide distribution, installation, monitoring and maintenance of the equipment, and back-up hydrogen at customer sites.

Power Tap is a hydrogen generator and station that is a part of the "Nuvera Total Power Solution" that includes the PowerEdge fuel cell hybrid system replacing standard lead acid batteries in materials handling equipment. The PowerTap generator uses steam reformation technology to produce hydrogen from natural gas.