Nuvera Fuel Cells, a provider of heavy-duty hydrogen fuel cell engines for on- and off-road mobility and other applications, is powering a Hyster® top-pick container handler with two E-45 fuel cell engines at the Port of Los Angeles (POLA) in Long Beach, California. The zero-emissions container handler is being operated at Fenix Marine Services, a terminal operator owned by the CMA CGM Group.

A grant awarded to the project manager, the Center for Transportation and the Environment, by the California Air Resources Board in 2018, helped support development of the hydrogen fuel cell-powered container handler. Refueling is expected to take approximately 15 minutes, and the vehicle is intended to provide eight to 10 hours of continuous run time. The hydrogen fuel cell engines work in tandem with an onboard lithium-ion battery to either power the equipment directly or charge the onboard battery. To reduce the amount of fuel required, the battery captures regenerated energy from the vehicle.

“Hydrogen-powered vehicles are able to meet the intensive duty cycles and load-lifting requirements associated with port operations,” said Lucien Robroek, CEO at Nuvera. “We are honored to have our hydrogen fuel cells used as the power source for Hyster’s container handler in this first-of-its-kind pilot at one of the world’s busiest ports and look forward to seeing it in daily use at the Fenix container terminal.”

 In addition to the POLA top-pick deployment, Nuvera fuel cell engines will power an electric terminal tractor and an empty container handler to be deployed at Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) Container Terminal Tollerort in Hamburg, part of Clean Port & Logistics (CPL), an innovation cluster to test hydrogen-powered port logistics equipment. Nuvera will also power a Hyster reach-stacking container handler at the Port of Valencia as part of a H2PORTS pilot project funded by the European Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking program.

 Nuvera can make greener ports a reality by providing zero-emission, high-productivity fuel cell solutions for port, rail, trucking, and marine operations. Nuvera® E-Series Fuel Cell Engines for heavy-duty applications help port authorities and terminal operators comply with tightening emissions regulations and mandates and remain economically competitive by providing high-performance zero-emission power solutions.

 The project underway at POLA is part of California Climate Investments, a statewide initiative that puts billions of cap-and-trade dollars to work reducing greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening the economy, improving public health and the environment, and providing meaningful benefits to the most disadvantaged communities, low-income communities, and low-income households.