In the battle for forklift motive power choices hydrogen looks set to move up a few gears as the future’s forklift fuel of choice, but much will depend on future environmental legislation, fuel costs and developments in other transport forms like cars. The traditional forklift motive fuels like diesel, electric and LPG are trying hard to improve their technologies to make them cleaner and more productive. Doosan’s new clean burn G2 diesel engine, for example, complies with the EU’ latest emissions directive which cuts Nox by 80% as well as provide ultra low sulphur fuel. There is no need for a costly soot filter and Doosan claims the engine’s fuel efficiency is 33% higher. Lead-acid battery electric trucks, meanwhile, have made such advances in chargers and overall truck design that according to Toyota and Mitsubishi they end any arguments for buying IC trucks instead of electric thanks to electric’s much improved performance inside and outside in all weathers.
Lithium-ion batteries have their advantages over lead-acid but they are three times more costly and so far their use has been confined to powered pallet trucks and tow vehicles because of counterweight design issues. Their future, however, could be enhanced when used with hydrogen fuel cells to charge the batteries, as Honda is now doing at its Swindon plant for its materials handling trucks. And what’s more it is the world’s first, truly green fuel development because hydrogen is made from solar power. Toyota’s car division, however, is moving away from this hybrid approach in a quantum leap, and gamble, to provide the world’s first mass market, all hydrogen car. It has a 300-mile range, far more than plug-in electric cars, and can be refuelled in minutes rather than hours needed to recharge electric batteries. Their sale price will be reduced by government subsidies, which will be offset by the expected lower health costs deriving from air pollution. Cars, trucks and other transport forms generate about 22% of the world’s greenhouse emissions. The big problem for Toyota, however, will be the need for investment in hydrogen fuelling stations. That however, need not be a problem for large forklift fleet operators who can justify their own on-site re-fuelling stations.
So where does that leave LPG and CNG in the fight for motive power hegemony? These power sources are undeniably cleaner than diesel but it is debatable as to whether they are clean enough for internal use, especially in the food and pharma industries. They are also less attractive than they were in performance terms when compared with electrics, owing to the latter’s big technical improvements. And like diesel, gas trucks can be expected to suffer falling demand as environmental legislation continues to become more demanding.
Given that demand for electric forklifts will not slump anytime soon, it is important to remember that you only get what you pay for. A battery accounts for 15-20% of a new truck’s value, with typically a five-year life. An aggressively-priced battery and charger package for the cheapest options means an inferior quality battery will have lower quality lead and sometimes even less of it. Consequently, the lead will degrade faster, yield less charge and give fewer overall cycles. It is also important to achieve an optimum pairing between charger and battery to obtain lower whole life costs.
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