Trucking has had a long love affair with diesel. The rhythmic thumping of a diesel engine is like the heartbeat of the industry itself, the comforting background noise of our business. Soon, however, trucking may fall in love with diesel all over again for something entirely new: fuel cell-powered APUs (auxiliary power units) that run on regular diesel fuel.

Many companies have been striving for years to bring fuel cell technology to the transportation industry because fuel cells are a significantly more energy efficient, cleaner, quieter and lower-maintenance power source than the internal combustion engine. Canadian manufacturer Ballard Power Systems, for example, rolled out a bus powered by fuel cell “stacks” run on hydrogen fuel back in 1993, and DaimlerChrysler (then Daimler-Benz) debuted the NECAR 3 fuel cell-powered car in 1997 that featured another fuel cell from Ballard Power, this model run on reformulated methanol.

In November 2002, General Dynamics C4 Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics, delivered a fuel cell-based APU for installation aboard the “21st Century Truck,” a government-industry collaborative project.

General Dynamics integrated a five-kilowatt (5kW), solid oxide fuel cell stack from Acumentrics Corp., designed to run directly off a variety of light hydrocarbon fuels, including natural gas.

Today, it would take several pages to name all the companies, agencies and universities working on bringing various fuel cell technologies to market, including Delphi, Ford Research Laboratory, Siemens, Severdrup, Honda, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and dozens of others.

To this list it is important to add a small new company, however, Franklin Fuel Cells, Inc. in Wayne, PA (www.franklinfuelcells.com). The company was formed to commercialize the diesel-powered fuel cell technology developed in 2001 by a team headed by chemical engineering professors Raymond J. Gorte and John M. Vohs at the University of Pennsylvania.

According to Eduardo Paz, technical program manager for Franklin, the first application for the new fuel cell is expected to be an APU in the two- to ten-kilowatt range to power HVAC systems and auxiliary devices on commercial trucks and other vehicles, which the company hopes to bring to market as soon as 2005-06 with the help of development contractor, Sarnoff Corp.

What makes this particular fuel cell so noteworthy is that it is able to operate on normal hydrocarbon fuels like diesel rather than on hydrogen, and it can do so without the need to first reform those hydrocarbons to hydrogen, notes Paz. “Fuel flexibility is a huge plus when compared to hydrogen-powered cells,” he says. “We do not have to wait until there is a hydrogen fuel infrastructure developed and diesel is also safer to handle, cheaper, and easier to contain and store.

“Compared to fuel cells that depend upon reformed hydrocarbon fuels, we also have an advantage because reformation adds complexity and cost while reducing efficiency,” Paz adds. “Our product is simpler. We still have a long way to go, but we believe there will be a demand and that we can get to the market sooner.”

“I'm as excited about the science as I am about the technology; it will enable us to do so much,” adds Gorte, who now holds the Russell Pearce and Elizabeth Crimian Heuer chair at the University of Pennsylvania.

Trucking is fortunate indeed to find itself near the top of the fuel cell applications list as the technology finally comes to market. For this industry, too, it will enable us to do so much.