Thousands of battery-powered forklifts in warehouses across the U.S. will haul everything from frozen turkeys and cured hams to big-screen TVs and tablet computers this holiday season. A growing number of big-name businesses that operate such warehouses have begun deploying forklifts that run on fuel cells as a way to both save money and go green.

Most such fuel cell-powered forklifts working the North American warehouses of Coca-Cola, FedEx, Wal-Mart, Kroger and CVS come from an upstate New York company called Plug Power. The company has dominated fuel cell-powered forklift sales in North America by offering up its GenDrive fuel cell technology that boosts warehouse productivity, lowers operating costs and  slashes carbon footprints.

"We convinced a group of large customers to give this technology a trial," said Andy Marsh, president and chief executive officer of Plug Power. "In some cases, customers who were repeat buyers became believers." 
 

Fuel cell-powered forklifts only need a wall-mounted hydrogen refueling station where vehicle operators can refuel within a few minutes. Beyond its rapid growth in the $4 billion North American market for handling materials, Plug Power has also taken aim at the $20 billion worldwide market. It recently struck a deal with Axane to begin deploying fuel cell-powered forklifts in Europe.

Clean technology
The company's expansion has relied upon how its fuel cells can transform the warehouse business by cleanly creating electricity from the chemical reaction between oxygen in the air and hydrogen gas. GenDrive fuel cells are paired with lithium-ion batteries.

Such fuel cells allow forklifts to continue working at full speed and power up until they need to refuel, whereas forklifts powered by lead-acid batteries suffer a performance drop-off of as much as 15 percent as their power drains.

Switching to fuel cells also allows businesses to eliminate battery switching and charging stations manned by full-time crews. Those can take up to 6 percent of valuable warehouse space. Instead, fuel cell-powered forklifts only need a wall-mounted hydrogen refueling station where vehicle operators can refuel within a few minutes.