Supply Side: Ballard, Chart; RELAM

Railway Equipment Leasing And Maintenance (RELAM) Inc. has added Sacramento, Calif., to its facility locations, which also include Cleveland, Ohio, and Granite City, Ill.

Ballard Power Systems and Chart Industries, Inc. reported successfully testing a fuel cell powered by liquid hydrogen. In addition, RELAM, Inc. opened a new maintenance-of-way equipment rental facility near Sacramento, Calif.

Early last year, Ballard and Chart partnered to develop integrated system solutions, including a fuel cell engine with onboard liquid hydrogen storage and vaporization, for rail, bus, truck and marine applications.

This month, they reported pairing a Ballard FCmove™-HD fuel cell with a Chart liquid onboard hydrogen (HLH2) vehicle fuel system for testing at Chart’s Minnesota facility.

“The demonstration confirms that heavy-duty vehicles powered by Ballard fuel cells will be able to employ Chart HLH2 vehicle fuel systems that utilize liquid hydrogen as a fuel,” the companies said.  “Liquid hydrogen has a significant space, weight and range advantage compared with gaseous hydrogen, allowing for up to double the range without space claim and payload impacts, and simplified fueling infrastructure for heavy-duty mobility applications such as class-8 trucks, buses, rail and marine. This recent work builds upon Chart’s previous fill, hold and vaporization testing of the Chart HLH2 vehicle fuel system, and long-established credentials in LNG [liquefied natural gas] service for vehicle fuel systems.”

Ballard and Chart said they will work to identify a potential demonstrator for liquid hydrogen road testing over the coming months.

Ballard is a producer of zero-emission proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells, enabling electrification of buses, commercial trucks, trains, marine vessels, passenger cars and forklift trucks. It has market access to system integrators and vehicle OEMs as well as fuel cell testing facilities in British Columbia, Canada, and Denmark. Chart is a provider of technology, equipment and services related to LNG, hydrogen, biogas and CO2 capture. It has truck LNG tank experience; an existing liquid hydrogen onboard vehicle tank prototype design; fuel to vehicle connection/interface experience; and a Minnesota-based LH2 test lab.

Railway Equipment Leasing And Maintenance (RELAM) Inc. has added a new facility near Sacramento, Calif., to better serve customers in the western United States and Canada’s British Columbia. It also offers facilities in Cleveland, Ohio, and Granite City, Ill., for railroads, railway contractors and transits authorities.

With the new location, RELAM customers in the West are slated to save money on freight costs, receive equipment faster, and have greater access to affordable late-model m/w equipment, the company said.