BMW factory trucks and elevators powered by hydrogen fuel cells

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BMW Manufacturing in Spartanburg, South Carolina, has more than doubled the number of its material handling equipment using hydrogenation systems from Linde North America.

According to the companies, the million square foot manufacturing facility currently powers more than hydrogen fuel cells across the fleet to support the facility's manufacturing and logistics functions.

Hydrogen is a by-product of sodium chlorate plants, and Linde uses electricity generated from renewable hydropower to purify, compress and liquefy it.

In , Linde supplied a hydrogen refueling system with six in-house UAE Phone Number refueling stations to support more than pieces of material handling equipment operating at the BMW plant. The expansion includes two new higher capacity compressors, new storage and distribution pipelines and eight new hydrogenators. To date, the facility has completed more than , hydrogen refuelings.

Lifts and trucks transport process parts to assembly machines throughout the factory. The lead-acid batteries that previously powered elevators and trucks have been replaced by hydrogen fuel cells from Plug Power, a supplier of hydrogen fuel cells to the material handling market.



BMW says the expansion improves productivity in two ways: It takes operators less than three minutes to add hydrogen to these trucks using Linde equipment, while replacing the batteries takes to minutes. Additionally, fuel cells do not degrade over time like lead-acid batteries, which begin to lose charge at the end of a shift.

BMW also expects to reduce overall electricity demand because the batteries will not need to be charged and eliminate the disposal costs of lead-acid batteries.

Today's Energy Manager reported earlier this month that Ace Hardware will install of Plug Power's GenDrive fuel cells at its newest retail distribution center in Wilmer, Texas, for its electric forklift fleet.