Ballard Receives Nisshinbo P.O. for Development Program to Advance Use of Non Precious Metal Catalyst Fuel Cells in Material Handling
Vancouver, Canada – Ballard Power Systems has received a purchase order from Nisshinbo Holdings, an Environmental and Energy company, to engage a Technology Solutions program that will assess the potential development of fuel cell stacks using a Non Precious Metal Catalyst (NPMC) for use in commercial material handling applications.
“As announced last week, we are interested in exploring uses for the NPMC-based product for various commercial applications,” said Dr. Kevin Colbow, Ballard’s Vice President – Technology and Product Development. “Building on the new FCgen®-1040 stack, which we plan to launch in late-2017, we are starting a program to assess the potential incorporation of Non Precious Metal Catalyst technology into our existing FCgen®-1020 air-cooled stack as well as our next-generation liquid-cooled stack. With this purchase order from Nisshinbo, a new multi-year Technology Solutions program will be initiated to work on this challenging next-step.”
Dr. Colbow continued, “Both air-cooled and liquid-cooled fuel cell stacks are used to power fork lift equipment in the field. Our goal is to ultimately implement lower-cost NPMC-based air-cooled and liquid-cooled stacks into certain mobility applications, with an initial focus on the material handling space, where blue-chip brands such as Walmart and Amazon have demonstrated the strong value proposition offered by current fuel cell-powered forklift trucks operating in high throughput distribution center environments.”
Source: IWR Online, 18 Sep 2017