Oorja unveils methanol fuel cell

Fremont, Calif.-based Oorja Protonics stepped out of stealth mode today, announcing that it would target the material handling vehicle market with its direct methanol fuel cell technology.

The startup touts its fuel cells as being 10 to 100 times more powerful than existing methanol fuel cells, and believes the use of the readily available fuel gives it a strong advantage over hydrogen technology for forklifts, tuggers, and automated guided vehicles.

"The company has been developing these things for almost three years now," Mannix O'Connor, director of marketing at Oorja, told the Cleantech Group.

"We're on the fifth-generation of the product, and we've produced many of them, and in fact they are in operation at customer sites."

Backed by nearly $21 million in funding from Sequoia Capital, DAG Ventures, McKenna Management and Spring Ventures, according to regulatory filings, the company plans to announce a major contract for its fuel cells later this week.

"It's a Tier 1, major player in the automotive manufacturing space," said David Vespremi, a spokesman for Oorja.

A Tier 1 company is a supplier to name-brand vehicle makers, and would supply companies such as Japan's Toyota Industries, Germany's KION Group, and Cleveland's NACCO Industries, three of the world's top manufacturers of materials handling vehicles.

Take a look at an Oorja-powered pallet truck here >>

Moving into the materials handling market would put Oorja, which means energy in Hindi, in direct competition with Latham, N.Y.-based Plug Power (Nasdaq: PLUG).

Plug Power made an acquisition last year to move into the forklift market (see Plug Power acquires forklift fuel cell maker Cellex).

But Plug Power fuel cells use hydrogen, which Oorja said lacks an extensive distribution network.

"That's a key differentiator with our technology, you're dealing with something that's in current use and ready supply. Nowhere near as volatile, certainly," said Vespremi.

Methanol can be produced from natural gas, landfill gases and biowaste.

Vespremi said material handling is a $2 billion industry that often uses next-generation technology before it ever shows up in consumer applications.

"The regenerative braking system that you see on more recent hybrid cars was actually, for many years, in use on the industrial equipment that was in the plants building those cars."

He said it's an industry that's eager for savings.

"You're talking about an environment that's very, very focused on efficiency, very focused as well on reducing plant emissions, so those technologies tend to appear there before they reach broader markets."

In addition to hydrogen, Oorja's move into the forklift business puts it up against compressed natural gas, which Vespremi said is being phased out, as well as the plug-in electric model.

But Vespremi said Oorja's fuel cells can keep the vehicles on the move for a lot longer than plug-in electric systems.

"Right now, what we're seeing is multiple shifts without stopping, so you can actually go, in many cases, two consecutive work shifts," he said. "You can't even get through one right now with the plug-in battery forklifts that don't have the OorjaPac on board."

The OorjaPac is the company's forklift fuel cell, which has a five gallon methanol fuel tank.

Scottsdale, Ariz.-based ECOtality (OTC: ETLY) is on the electric side of the material handling industry, and it grabbed Minit-Charger, an Irvine, Calif., fast charging company, late last year (see ECOtality grabs another fast charger co.).

A major drawback for electric vehicles is the long recharge cycles, although that may not be the only problem in the material handling sector.

"The batteries for these forklifts can weigh 2,000 pounds," said O'Conner. "So you're craning them out of the units and putting in another 2,000 pound battery, a couple of times a shift."

"It's just a lot of work and inefficient," he said.

Oorja said its system acts as an on-board charger, and can be refueled just like a car, with a hose and nozzle from a compact methanol refueling cabinet.

Oorja manufactures all of its products in California, with Vespremi characterizing the company's Fremont headquarters as "equal parts R&D and manufacturing."

O'Conner said, "We divide the floor into cells where we do mechanical assembly and electronic assembly and actually the fuel cell stack itself."

He said the company can build out new cells on the floor as it reaches higher production requirements.

"We intend to build right here in Fremont, in the U.S.A., for the foreseeable future."