Much as diesel engine manufacturers have striven to improve not only their engines’ performance but also their emissions problems, which has been considerable, the advances in alterative motive power sources, particularly electric, have swung the pendulum even more away from diesel.
A key reason for this swing is that previously truck users felt obliged to buy engine machines (diesel, LPG, CNG) because electric alternatives, though cheaper and cleaner to run, lacked the power punch of engine trucks, so performance was lower. All that has changed, however, as advances in electrics, particularly chargers and overall truck design, now place them on a performance par with engines in all weathers outside and inside, including heavy lift models.
Another swing factor has been the growing concern surrounding harmful diesel NO2 emissions, highlighted by the recent scandals of car engine defeat devices that leave the cars breaking legal emissions limits many times over.
In an ongoing French investigation into Renault, for example, a watchdog group showed that the company’s cars were allegedly emitting as much as 25 times the levels of nitrogen oxides, common and carcinogenic in diesel exhaust, allowed by the European Union.
There is also growing evidence that in Britain alone air pollution is killing 60,000 a year and hospitalising many more through pulmonary diseases like asthma, of which 80% is caused by road transport, mainly diesel.
Much as diesel engine makers have tried to clean up diesel they cannot yet cope with sub 2.5 micron oily particulates, which lodge permanently in the body. Unless the pollution factor for both diesel and LPG is entirely eliminated it seems a fair bet that electric and new power sources, like hydrogen fuel cells, will be the favoured fuels.
If, however, preferring to stick with diesel, there are some measures users can do to clean up the air inside buildings caused by airborne dust which not only contaminates stock but can cause serious health problems. All forklift engines create dust from various sources but the bigger problem is the way it is spread around. The engine creates a cyclone effect, sucking up dust from the floor, but unlike a cleaner the particles are not stored, but rather thrown into the air. The ideal solution is a barrier under the truck in the form of a belly plate, with sealed rear wheel arches and brakes, along with high efficiency cyclone air filters.
Responsible diesel/LPG operators should also consider the health risks from buying second-hand trucks, which will not meet today’s more stringent exhaust emissions standards. Buying new rather than second-hand would show a better duty of care to operators.
As with many new technologies that have high initial costs, hydrogen fuel cell trucks are likely to see falling costs as component prices fall. Forklift companies like Hyster/Yale are committing themselves to hydrogen fuel cells because it believes it offers great value to many of its customers and is totally clean at point of use. Users of ICE-powered trucks can replace their engines with electric models powered by a fuel cell solution such as the Nueva Power Edge battery box replacement, a drop-in replacement for lead-acid batteries. Unlike leadacid batteries that take hours to recharge, hydrogen dispensing takes only 1-3 minutes and the trucks can run up to three times longer than lead-acid, battery-powered trucks.
Hydrogen can be made from multiple feed stocks, including renewables, and while the initial cost for the fuel pack and infrastructure is higher than a conventional battery set-up some claim that the ROI can be only 12 months in large fleets with multishift operations.
Meanwhile, the advances in electric will continue to stir and cloud the market into more “interesting times” as the old Chinese curse goes. Lithium-ion batteries are making some headway, albeit mainly in the small powered pallet truck arena, and the Chinese company, BYD, is pinning its hopes on Iron-Phosphate- powered electric trucks. The competing technologies have a scrap on their hands for market share but the true winners should be the forklift operators.
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