There has been a lot of development and commercialization of hydrogen fuel cell forklifts over the past couple of years. I’ve talked about FCV forklifts in the U. S. food industry, including Coca-Cola and FCV forklifts for Walmart. Outside the U. S. I’ve talked about fuel cell forklifts in Scandinavia and Germany.
This past summer I had talked about the H2 Mobility plan for Germany in which eight large companies had signed onto in order to rollout enough H2 fueling stations for the commercialization of hydrogen vehicles by 2015.
One of the companies that had signed on to this agreement for Germany to become a hydrogen transportation corridor is Daimler which is producing 200 FCVs in the next couple of years with aims at commercialization by 2015.
Another of these eight companies is Linde, which is not only a major supplier of hydrogen gas in Germany but is also now in the business of building H2 forklifts. The forklifts or “trucks” as they are being called are replacing two diesel forklifts at the Linde plant.
The fuel cell forklifts are being used to haul compressed gas tanks between warehouses and trucking points. Now, granted, hydrogen fuel cell forklifts may not be as sexy as hydrogen cars, but they are practical, economical, environmentally friendly and being commercialized now.
In your article you state Linde is both a both supplier of hydrogen gas in Germany and in the business of building H2 forklifts.
I would like to call to your attention that hydrogen producer Linde, is no longer the same company as Linde Material Handling. In 2006, Linde Material Handling became a legally independent company under the KION Group.