Michael Kanellos: October 27, 2008, 3:04 PM

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Greentech Innovations: Why Fuel Cells Finally Make Sense

Fuel cells. Bring up those two words in polite conversation at a greentech conference and close to half of the people in listening range will say, "You've got to be kidding."

Sanjiv Malhotra, CEO of methanol fuel cell maker Oorja Protonics, would care to differ. His company, which he will showcase at the Greentech Innovations End to End Electricity Conference on November 17, makes large-scale fuel cells for forklifts and cellular towers. In specific applications, fuel cells do a far better job than batteries or diesel generators, he says.

First, look at fork lifts. A lead-acid battery pack can only power a fork lift for four hours before depleting. An expensive lithium-ion battery can go eight hours. The fuel cell will keep the fork lift cranking for 12 hours, or more than one shift.

Charge time is also far lower. It takes eight to 15 hours to charge a lead acid battery pack, two to four hours to charge a lithium-ion pack, but only three minutes to fill up a methanol tank. Because batteries take so long to charge, fork lift drivers don't wait around for their batteries to rejuvenate. Instead, they drive their rigs to a battery changing bay where a technician swaps out the old battery for a new one.

But that adds cost. Think of it, Malhotra says. You need at least two battery packs for each forklift and a lot of chargers, one for ever two batteries at a minimum. The infrastructure for a lead acid battery fork lift operation can run $500,000, which is roughly the same price as one for lithium ion battery forklifts. Oorja's methanol refueling station: $25,000. (Here's a video of an Oorja-powered fork lift in action.)

Toyota, Nissan and Ace Hardware already have fork lifts powered by Oorja fuel cells and are testing them. The company has made 150 units to date and is engaged in ten field trials. It takes four hours to build one of the fuel cells from scratch.

Is it tough to get methanol? No. One of the company's customers, a large meat processor, says its easy. "After I tell you this you will probably want to become a vegetarian. They (meat processors) feed methanol to the chickens," he said. It gets mixed into the feed. It costs a few dollars a gallon.

As an added bonus, there's a 66 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, assuming that those batteries are being charged up from coal-fired power plants. Thus, in real life, you have to knock that figure down a bit, but a sizable delta will still persist.

Now onto cellular towers. After Hurricane Katrina, the FCC has been busy passing new regulations regarding backup time for cell towers. Cell carriers will likely have to prove they can provide eight hours of backup time. Methanol fuel cells are simply easier to operate and can be cheaper. Oorja in fact will soon kick off a trial with an overseas carrier. (Malhotra won't divulge the name for wide publication yet, but expect to see it soon.)