Hyster starts pilot of hydrogen fuel cell-powered container handler
The hydrogen fuel cell works with an onboard lithium-ion battery to either power the equipment directly or charge the onboard battery.
Hyster Company announces testing of a top-pick container handler powered by hydrogen fuel cells (HFC) at Fenix Marine Services in the Port of Los Angeles.
Building on the industry standard Hyster® H1050-1150XD-CH top-pick container handler design, the truck is powered by two 45kw hydrogen fuel cells from Nuvera, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hyster parent company Hyster-Yale Group. A California Climate Investments grant awarded by the California Air Resources Board in 2018 helped support the development of the HFC-powered container handler.
The HFC-powered top pick is designed to provide the zero-emissions benefits of a battery-electric option, with enough capacity to keep operators moving and avoid the need to stop in the middle of a shift to refuel or recharge. Refuelling the top pick with hydrogen fuel is expected to take approximately 15 minutes, to provide eight to 10 hours of continuous run time, all while producing no harmful emissions – only water and heat.
The top pick also has a patented Hyster® energy recovery system for electric container handlers that recovers and stores energy from lowering loads and braking.
The Fenix Marine Services (FMS) container terminal, acquired in 2021 by the CMA CGM Group, a global player in sea, land, air and logistics solutions, uses compressed hydrogen delivered on-site to fuel the top pick.
The company has recently launched lithium-ion powered forklifts with load capacities up to 36,000-pounds and previously announced a pilot of a fuel-cell powered ReachStacker at the Port of Valencia, a fuel cell-powered empty container handler at a terminal in Hamburg, Germany and a joint partnership to develop electric and hydrogen-powered terminal tractors.
Steve Trombley, FMS CEO, said, “Exploring the use of hydrogen as a zero-emission fuel source is important for the entire transportation industry and is a perfect complement to the other alternative energy research and development projects our parent company.”
Jan Willem van den, Director at Hyster, said, “Our mission is to provide the innovative technologies our customers need to help meet their goals for emissions reduction and performance. For some operations, lithium-ion power might be the answer, but for others, hydrogen is the right choice.”
