Technical and Economic Analysis of Fuel Cells for Forklift Applications

This study compared the life cycle cost (LCC) of LiFePO₄ battery, proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), and direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) as the main power source of electric forklifts. The battery showed the lowest LCC over 10 years ($14,935) among the three power sources, thanks to the significant price reduction in recent years. The fuel cost accounted for more than 70% of the total LCC of PEMFC ($36,682) when the hydrogen price was $8/kg. The LCC of DMFC ($41,819) with the current performance and catalyst loading (0.2 W/cm², 6 mg_PGM/cm²) was 12% higher than the LCC of PEMFC ($36,682). The LCC of DMFC ($25,050) will be 28.9% lower than that of PEMFC if both PEMFC and DMFC reach the target performance and catalyst loading set by the U.S. Department of Energy (1 W/cm², 0.125 mg_PGM/cm² for PEMFC and 0.3 W/cm², 3 mg_PGM/cm² for DMFC). The smaller fleet size will significantly increase the LCC of PEMFC due to the high cost of hydrogen fueling and storage infrastructure. For forklift users with less than 50 units, which account for 80% of forklift users, DMFC will be even more cost-effective due to the significantly lower cost of methanol infrastructure.