News

Vehicle Projects Signs Contract forFuel Cell Power Plant

October 12, 2005 by Jeff Shepard

Vehicle Projects LLC announced the signing of a contract to develop a 150 kW fuel cell power plant as a prototype power plant for an advanced rail-vehicle under development by an offshore railway research organization. The PEM fuel cell power plant will be delivered in January 2006 and will utilize the new FORZA power modules of Nuvera Fuel Cells Inc., a long-term business associate of Vehicle Projects. The PEM fuel-cell-powered locomotives will combine the best advantages of the two contemporary types of locomotive power: catenary-electric and diesel-electric power. They will be more efficient and have lower infrastructure costs than catenary-electrics, and will be cleaner and quieter than diesel-electrics.

"We continue to use Nuvera fuel cell stacks and power modules in our advanced vehicles because of the ruggedness of their metal bipolar plates, and the simplicity and compactness of their direct-water-injection system of cooling and membrane humidification," said Vehicle Projects President Arnold Miller. Steel-wheel-on-steel-rail applications are subject to extreme shock and vibration, and our experience with Nuvera stacks in the earlier mine locomotive has demonstrated that metal plates are up to the task."