Besides traction batteries, there is another energy source for electric lift and warehouse trucks: hydrogen. Abroad, this gas is now widely used. The Netherlands is in danger of falling far behind. A number of parties are trying to change this during the Logistica trade fair from 28 to 30 November. At the Hydrogen Plaza in hall 1, they will share their vision, knowledge and experience. They have one important piece of advice: look for scale outside the four walls of the warehouse.
Hydrogen is still relatively unknown in the Netherlands as an energy source for lift and warehouse trucks. That is different in the US, where the two major retailers have recently decided to invest on a large scale in fuel cells that convert hydrogen into electrical energy. In April, Amazon announced it was testing this technology in 10 warehouses. Wal-Mart has now passed the testing stage and already has around 5,500 trucks with fuel cells running in 22 warehouses. Last summer, Wal-Mart announced that it would switch the fleet in another 26 warehouses to hydrogen, which is an important signal, argues Willem Stehouwer, BMWT board member. "Wal-Mart has become the largest retailer in the world partly thanks to their renowned focus on cost. Such a party only chooses hydrogen if it is profitable."
Stehouwer is the major animator behind the Hydrogen Plaza. This plaza in hall 1 during Logistica is entirely dedicated to hydrogen. Experts from various parties - from hydrogen producers such as HYGRO to forklift suppliers such as Heffiq and Toyota - will be at the plaza to share their vision, knowledge and experience. "Not only in the United States, but also elsewhere in Europe, hydrogen is being used. Consider the Belgian supermarket chain Colruyt, which opened a hydrogen filling station at its distribution centre in Halle in 2012. In the Netherlands, we are clearly lagging behind. Together with the participants in Hydrogen Plaza, we want to change this," Stehouwer explains.
Technology is available
Toyota has committed company-wide to hydrogen. With the Mirai, the Japanese concern delivers a series-produced hydrogen-powered passenger car. In addition, ahead of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Toyota has started delivering a total of 100 fuel cell-powered city buses. The material handling division is making grateful use of the knowledge and experience developed. "In every segment of our product portfolio, we now have a truck that can be supplied with a fuel cell. In addition, we can also replace the battery compartment of existing trucks with a fuel cell including hydrogen tank, counterweight and a battery to handle peak currents. For companies looking to convert their fleet to hydrogen, such a retrofit can make sense," says Pank Hertsenberg, general director of Toyota Material Handling Netherlands.
Heffiq is importer of forklift brand Hyster, which took an important step towards hydrogen three years ago with the acquisition of Nuvera. This US company not only produces fuel cells, but also supplies the equipment to produce and refuel hydrogen. "With Nuvera, Hyster has acquired a lot of knowledge. In the US and elsewhere in Europe, Hyster has launched several tests. The technology just works well, in fact any electric forklift can be fitted with a fuel cell. Hyster is even working on a pilot to electrify a heavy container truck so that at a later stage fuel cells can also be used in this truck," states Martijn Veerkamp, commercial director of Heffiq.
Clean and fast
Using hydrogen in warehouses offers several advantages. Combustion in fuel cells produces only pure water, no more CO2 like fossil fuels such as diesel and LPG. A hydrogen tank is also filled in a few minutes, eliminating the need for lengthy charging and/or changing of conventional traction batteries. Indeed, a charging station is no longer needed at all. "In addition, fuel cells require hardly any maintenance, unlike lead-acid batteries, which require frequent refilling and cleaning with all the associated risks. Companies in the food sector find it an attractive idea that they no longer need lead-acid batteries. It benefits both safety and hygiene," Stehouwer says.
Hydrogen also offers advantages compared to the new generation of lithium-ion batteries. "Lithium-ion batteries still require great discipline from drivers. In every break, the truck has to be charged on an interim basis. Those who forget to plug it in once run a high risk of stalling later in the day. Then the machine still has to be recharged. A hydrogen tank, on the other hand, is full again within three or four minutes," says Veerkamp. Stehouwer additionally cites durability as an argument. "The element lithium, unlike hydrogen, is only available in nature to a limited extent."
Renewable energy sources
Hydrogen is particularly interesting for warehouses that want to run on renewable energy sources. The main limitation of solar panels and wind turbines is that the sun does not always shine and the wind does not always blow at the time when the generated electricity is most needed. In other words, there is a gap between when supply arises and when demand arises. Even in warehouses, internal transport equipment is usually charged at night, the time when the solar panels on the roof do not provide power. The gap between supply and demand can be bridged by temporarily storing sustainably generated energy. This can be done by buffering the energy in large stationary batteries, but also by using it to produce hydrogen. This gas can quite easily be stored in tanks until the time when the energy is needed.
HYGRO is one of the parties fervently advocating the combination of hydrogen with renewable energy sources. Among other things, the company is exploring the possibilities of producing hydrogen in offshore wind farms. "Integrating wind energy and hydrogen offers great cost advantages. The same applies to solar energy, but that option is a lot less cost-efficient for the time being due to the limited number of sunlight hours," says Jan Willem Langeraar, who is one of the experts at the Hydrogen Plaza as HYGRO's business development manager.
Small-scale local projects
Two factors currently stand in the way of large-scale adoption of hydrogen. The first factor is scale. A switch to hydrogen requires a relatively high investment and only becomes interesting from a certain volume. On the road, another factor is at play: infrastructure, or rather the lack thereof. A transport and distribution network with hydrogen filling stations does not yet exist in the Netherlands. As long as hydrogen is not easily available, most companies do not dare to make the switch. But as long as business does not demand hydrogen, nobody is going to invest in the necessary infrastructure. This chicken-and-egg discussion stands in the way of the transition to a hydrogen economy. "The government could take the lead on this issue," Veerkamp suggests. "In Germany, the government is putting a lot of money into the construction of 400 hydrogen filling stations for road transport, which are about to open. In addition, it is certainly not inconceivable that it will become possible to refuel at more locations. This could be with hydrogen supplied from elsewhere or produced on site at a later stage, so that internal transport equipment will also use this energy source." Stehouwer points out that the lack of a network of public refuelling stations is less relevant for forklifts. "An on-site refuelling station, which can also be used to refuel trucks, is relatively easy to implement. It is precisely the combination of internal transport and road transport that can pave the way for hydrogen."
One method to break the chicken-and-egg debate is to bet on local projects. If hydrogen is produced locally using renewable energy sources, the lack of a national infrastructure is no longer a problem. If several companies join hands at the local level, the required scale is more likely to be achieved. "In the form of small-scale projects, we can show that hydrogen technology works and is cost-effective. If successful, we can easily replicate that approach to other locations," Hertsenberg argues.
To create sufficient scale, Hydrogen Plaza participants advocate looking not only at forklifts, but also at other vehicles such as trucks and passenger cars. After all, hydrogen also offers significant environmental and cost benefits for road transport. Fuel cell vehicles are not only cleaner, but also quieter. "Think, for example, of rubbish trucks and trucks for urban distribution. More and more municipalities are setting strict requirements for trucks in city centres. A lot of experimentation is currently taking place with electric vehicles, but they are running into the limits of their range. Hydrogen could be a good alternative. The operational costs of electric driving are lower than when using fossil fuels," Stehouwer argues.
Rubbish trucks and city buses
An example of a local project is DUWAAL in North Holland, in which HYGRO is playing a pioneering role together with partner E-Trucks Europe. Hydrogen will be produced at a wind turbine in Wieringermeer, which will then be brought to five filling stations via composite bottles. The intention is for rubbish trucks in Alkmaar and Amsterdam to run on this hydrogen, but city buses and sweepers are also eligible. Toyota is involved in the project to investigate whether companies with forklifts can get on board. "We want at least a hundred trucks to run on hydrogen. But once the distribution network is in place, it will be a small job to also hook up companies with forklift fleets," Langeraar says.
In Ede, Toyota itself has taken the initiative to build a hydrogen filling station together with the municipality and some other companies. Again, the plan is to run both forklifts and trucks on hydrogen, while Hertsenberg himself will drive a Toyota Mirai. "A Mirai can drive 500 kilometres with 5 kilograms of hydrogen, an average forklift needs 2 kilograms for one shift, a pallet truck less than 0.5 kilograms while a rubbish truck needs 12.5 kilograms. When the total purchase exceeds 100 kilograms, hydrogen becomes interesting," Hertsenberg said, explaining that enthusiasm in Ede is high, both among the municipality and companies. "Setting up a public filling station encounters all kinds of difficulties and objections, but these fall away as soon as a party is willing to set up a filling station on its own premises. Why would that party then not make that station accessible to external parties? "
No more experiments
Hydrogen Plaza participants have one key piece of advice for companies interested in hydrogen: look for sufficient scale beyond the four walls of the warehouse. For large retailers and logistics providers, hydrogen becomes a lot more interesting if they look not only at their internal transport fleet, but also at their trucks. For companies that do not have sufficient scale in the warehouse and on the road, there are opportunities in cooperation with other companies. These could be companies nearby, but perhaps also transport companies that come to load or unload daily. Langeraar: "The technology is ready. That has now been sufficiently proven in projects all over the world. The market no longer needs all kinds of small-scale experiments with one or two hydrogen-powered trucks. Those cost relatively a lot of money and no longer provide new insights. What we need to do now is bundle demand and create scale."
Logistica
Logistica is the most important trade fair in the field of logistics and goods flow management within the Benelux. Besides a large and comprehensive range of exhibitors, Logistica also has an extensive content programme with conferences, seminars, demonstrations and informative tours. This edition of the exhibition has no fewer than 4 Scala's, each covering 1 of the focus areas Move, Store, Pick and Deliver. More information can be found at www.logistica-online.nl. tweet along via #logistica2017.
Simultaneously with Logistica, ICT & Logistiek www.ict-en-logistiek.nl, the annual trade fair for ICT applications and services in the logistics chain, is taking place. Information on logistics developments can be found all year round via Logistiekprofs.nl.
