Jülich: Methanol fuel cell with long operating life

Commercialisation opportunities

Through a combination of physics and supercomputing, the Jülich Institute of Energy Research, Germany, has developed direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) that can be used to power electrically driven forklift trucks.

Jülich aims to bring the technique to the market in 2011/2012. “With our research, we do not simply want to establish basic principles, we also want to take the necessary steps towards the commercialisation of fuel cell technology.” says Stolten.

Fuel cells are electrochemical energy conversion devices which produce electricity via the transformation of commercial fuels by a reformer. According to Jülich, DMFC energy systems accelerate fuelling time, don’t necessitate gas tanks or long battery charging, and have extended operation times. This system doesn’t produce fumes, making it a good candidate for transport of pallets and packaged goods in closed environments such as warehouses.

Jülich focuses on hybridisation, which consists of modelling and simulating energy storage media, recording long-term profile cycles for the forklift truck under real operating conditions. Detlef Stolten, Director of the Institute of Energy Research, said: “Our prototypes run for 500 hours under real conditions in dynamic operations.”

Research and development of cost-effective DMFC energy systems is being carried out by an industry consortium comprising the Research Centre Jülich, Junghelnrich, Ritter Elektronik, Ebm-Papst and AKG.

Jülich hopes to apply its proprietary fuel cell technology to developing highly efficient, energy-saving on-board power supply systems, in collaboration with transportation industries.

The institute is also developing a technology that allows rapid analysis of plants and soils, and materials for the development of greenhouse gas-free energy supplies.