Abstract Information

Date:            January 17^th, 2008  

Time:           6:30pm  

Title:            Low Life Cycle Cost Natural Gas Reforming for Fuel Cell Forklift Market Application  

Presenter:    Atul Sharma  

Abstract: Materials handling is an application where fuel cells can be cost competitive today. Initial market analysis shows potential for significant productivity gains in high through put warehouses for fuel cell powered forklifts, provided availability of low cost hydrogen. Hydrogen below $5/kg at low production quantities (50 to 200kg H2/day) is required for viability of fuel cell powered forklifts. In near term, on site natural gas reforming is the only viable technology to meet these cost targets. To keep costs low, hydrogen generation has to follow consumer consumption rates. Unlike big industrial reformers, this puts severe cycling requirements on small scale reformers. Nuvera has spent last 3 years developing reformers for small scale stationary applications with DOE funding. Nuvera has developed fuel processing technology designed to last 40,000 hrs under aggressive cyclic operation. Nuvera currently has reformer systems on test at customer warehouse powering fuel cell forklifts vehicles and supplying hydrogen to Nuvera laboratories.  

 

Presenter Bio: Atul Sharma got his bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur in 1998. He completed his MS in Applied Mechanics from University of Rhode Island in 2000. During his masters Atul published three papers and won the outstanding paper award at the 3rd Annual Society of Experimental Mechanics (SEM) Student Conference at WPI, March, 1999. After completing his masters, Atul joined Nuvera Fuel Cells and is currently working there as a Lead Mechanical Engineer. Over the last seven years Atul has been working on developing small scale fuel processors for hydrogen production and Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cells. Nuvera Fuel Cells is a global leader in the development and advancement of multi-fuel processing and fuel cell technology committed to providing clean, safe and efficient power solutions.