Turning brown to green: UPS puts fuel cell delivery vans in service at three sites in the U.S

Diesel Progress North American Edition, Nov, 2004 by Bill Siuru, Jr.

At first glance they look like any of the familiar brown trucks used by United Parcel Service (UPS). But if you see the "[H.sub.2] Fuel Cell Powered" graphics on sides of the trucks, you're looking at a real--world application for a fuel cell-powered vehicle.

Three Dodge Sprinter Vans operated by UPS will be the first medium-duty fuel cell vehicles in commercial use in the U.S. The Dodge Fuel Cell Sprinter represents the latest technology from DaimlerChrysler and its Fuel Cell Alliance partner, Canadian-based Ballard Power Systems.

The Dodge Fuel Cell Sprinters will be used by UPS in a daily delivery route service making deliveries from a central UPS depot and operated by a regular UPS driver. The three Fuel Cell Sprinters will be used in Los Angeles, Sacramento and Ann Arbor, Mich. The stop-and-go driving with heavy load environments associated with package delivery will provide valuable data to DaimlerChrysler, Ballard and UPS on the operation of commercial fuel cell vehicles.

Based on the production of the Dodge Sprinter, the new Fuel Cell Sprinter has the latest advancements in Ballard's fuel cell technology resulting from over a decade of fuel cell vehicle research and development. The fuel cell vans are powered by an 85 kW fuel cell system. The overall system is rated 68 kW. It includes a Ballard Power System Mk 902 proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell module that produces up to 300 amps of electrical power at 284 Vdc. This fourth generation fuel cell is scalable from 10 to 250 kW and by using an ethylene-glycol coolant, it can operate at sub-zero temperatures, Ballard said.

An ac electric motor rated 41 kW continuously drives the front wheels. The entire Ballard fuel cell system including the hydrogen storage tanks is housed in the floor. This leaves full use of the interior for carrying packages. Indeed, fuel cell technology eliminates the need to house an engine in the front of the truck and thus otters the possibility, of completely new designs for package delivery vehicles.

The Fuel Cell Sprinter has a top speed of 80 mph and a range of approximately 155 miles, well within the typical range required of most UPS delivery trucks. The three test units are expected to cover around 45 miles per day. The FCV Sprinters have similar acceleration as gas- or diesel-powered UPS vans. Gaseous hydrogen is stored at 5000 psi in two large and one small high-pressure storage cylinders. These very strong, Type III tanks supplied by Dynetek consist of an aluminum core with a carbon wrap.

The unit in Ann Arbor will be refueled from hydrogen fueling stations designed and built by Air Products for the EPA. The other two vans will be refueled at BP hydrogen fueling stations being built to support the DOE fleet demonstrations of DaimlerChrysler and Ford hydrogen-fueled vehicles.

This is not the first fuel cell Sprinter van in service with a package delivery company. A fuel cell Sprinter van was first delivered to Germany's Hermes Versand delivery company in 2001 and has logged more than 15,000 miles in daily service. They are also not the first fuel cell vehicles used by UPS. The company has operated an F-Cell, a fuel cell powered vehicle based on the Mercedes-Benz A-Class sedan for six months for early morning daily package delivery in southeastern Michigan. In all, DaimlerChrysler has about 100 fuel cell vehicles ranging from tiny A-Class cars to large Citaro buses in operation or under construction.

According to DaimlerChrysler, the test programs have shown that the on-road reliability of fuel cell vehicles is excellent, and equivalent to current fleet vehicles. In future, a significant reduction in maintenance costs is a goal since the drivetrain, with few moving parts, is projected to last longer than a gasoline or diesel engine.

Based on the success of this demonstration program, UPS could use zero-emission engines in its fleet of 88,000 vehicles. Of course, UPS recognizes the remaining hurdles--the need for more hydrogen refueling stations and that it is still more expensive to manufacture fuel cell vehicles.

Bill Siuru, PhD, PE, is a Diesel Progress field editor based in Temecula, Calif.