GLOBE Fuel Cell Systems receives funding decision

On October 25, 2023, the Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for Digital Affairs and Transport, Michael Theurer, MP, handed over a funding decision for the use of fuel cell-powered industrial trucks to the Stuttgart-based GreenTech company GLOBE Fuel Cell Systems in the amount of around €1.3 million during his visit.

• Joint funding project between GLOBE Fuel Cell Systems and other partners for the further development of fuel cell technology in industrial trucks in practical use
• Term from October 2023 to January 2025
• Funding for GLOBE Fuel Cell Systems amounts to approx. 1.3 million euros
• Michael Theurer, Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for Digital and Transport Affairs, hands over the funding certificate to the GLOBE Fuel Cell Systems team

“Projects like that of GLOBE Fuel Cell Systems GmbH make an important contribution to advancing hydrogen and fuel cell technology in the field of intralogistics and strengthening alternative drive technologies. By promoting such projects, the German government is striving to advance the energy transition in transport in a sustainable and economically sensible way,” emphasized Michael Theurer.

The “XLP80Mbedded” project is being funded by the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport Affairs with a total of around 1.3 million euros as part of the National Innovation Program for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology (NIP). The funding guideline is coordinated by NOW GmbH and implemented by Project Management Jülich (PtJ).

The aim of the project is to further develop hydrogen-powered fuel cell systems in industrial trucks to meet the increased demands for performance and efficiency in the industry. The results will continue to be used to work together on standards for the use of fuel cell technology in intralogistics in the Clean Intralogistics Net (CIN). The CIN is an association of twelve companies that have set themselves the goal of making conveyor technologies and their infrastructure in industry, airports and ports lower-emission and, in the long term, more economical.

GLOBE Fuel Cell Systems has developed its own fuel cell system especially for use in intralogistics – the GLOBE XLP80. This system is CE-certified and is manufactured in Stuttgart at GLOBE Manufaktur.

The use of hydrogen-powered fuel cell systems in intralogistics can significantly increase productivity. These systems can be refueled with hydrogen in less than 5 minutes and can be used immediately afterwards. This eliminates the need for hours of battery charging. This reduces the downtime of intralogistics vehicles, reduces their number to a minimum and increases the flexibility of the overall system. In addition, the fuel cell system continuously delivers consistent power. Unlike conventional lead-acid batteries, which show a drop in performance from a charge level of less than 50 %. The GLOBE XLP80 also eliminates the need to manage current peaks when fast-charging newer lithium-ion batteries. In addition, the elimination of battery changing stations and changing halls provides more space for customers’ own value-added processes.

In addition to the technical advantages of the fuel cell, each system has an integrated GLOBE DataCore. This enables the online transmission of various performance and sensor data to the cloud. The data obtained in this way ensures optimized operation and high system availability, as maintenance scopes can be anticipated in advance, for example.

With the hydrogen strategy published in June 2020 and updated in July 2023 , the German government is supporting the field of hydrogen even more extensively than in the past. The initiative pursues both ecological and economic goals. In ecological terms, the energy transition is also to be extended to the use of green hydrogen as an energy source. In addition, hydrogen and fuel cell technology are to be developed into a new field of industrial expertise in Germany that will secure prosperity and jobs. The GLOBE Fuel Cell Systems project and its partners are making a contribution to this.