Smarticle

The Raymond Corporation is now an independent distributor for the sale, rental and lease of Plug Power  GenDrive™ fuel cell units in North America.  Image credit: Plug Power
As an Authorized Service Provider, Raymond also will provide warranty and maintenance service on GenDrive products through its North American Sales and Service Center network. In addition, Raymond is a GenDrive Authorized Distributor of service parts.
“Plug Power is a fuel cell market leader, and this partnership enables Raymond to offer cutting-edge lift truck power solutions to the material handling industry,” says Chuck Pascarelli, executive vice president of sales and marketing for The Raymond Corporation. “Through this agreement, Raymond and its Sales and Service Center network can aid companies in the deployment of fuel cell-powered lift trucks and provide ongoing service and support throughout the life of the trucks.”
“Raymond’s leading AC technology, coupled with Plug Power’s proven GenDrive solutions will bring superior power and performance to the electric lift truck market,” says Andy Marsh, CEO of Plug Power. “By investigating and commercializing new technologies to power its durable, reliable lift trucks, Raymond is helping to offer companies a seamless solution for installing fuel cell-powered lift trucks.”
GenDrive fuel cell power units have been tested and approved for use in Raymond(R) Model 8400 pallet trucks, Model 4100 and 4200 stand-up counterbalanced trucks, and various Model 7400 Reach-Fork(R) trucks. Raymond is evaluating additional Raymond lift truck models to assess their compatibility with hydrogen fuel cells.
Based on recent demonstrations by lift truck and fuel cell manufacturers, there appears to be significant potential to improve warehouse productivity when fuel cells are used to power lift trucks in high-throughput warehouse applications. Hydrogen fuel cells can offer higher productivity in electric lift trucks because they can be rapidly refueled by operators, eliminating the need to change, store and maintain batteries. Plus, fuel cells produce constant voltage, which means there is no battery drop toward the end of a shift, and the vehicle experiences no performance degradation.
For more information about Raymond fuel cell-powered lift trucks or Plug Power’s GenDrive hydrogen fuel cell units, or to locate a Raymond Sales and Service Center, visit www.raymondcorp.com or call (800) 235-7200.About The Raymond Corporation
The Raymond Corporation is a global provider of material handling solutions that improve space utilization and productivity, with lower cost of operation and greater operator acceptance. Raymond offers the iWarehouse(R) system, an enterprise fleet optimization solution for warehouse and distribution center managers to collect and analyze real-time lift truck data to maximize fleet productivity and reduce costs. High-performance, reliable, ergonomically designed Raymond lift trucks range from a full line of manual and electric pallet trucks and walkie stackers to counterbalanced trucks, Reach-Fork(R) trucks, orderpickers and dual-purpose (pallet handling/case picking) Swing-Reach(R) trucks.
Plug Power Inc. is an established leader in the development and deployment of clean, reliable energy solutions. Plug Power integrates fuel cell technology into motive and continuous power products. Plug Power is actively engaged with private and public customers in targeted markets throughout the world. For more information about how to join Plug Power’s energy revolution as an investor, customer, supplier or strategic partner, please visit www.plugpower.com.
The Raymond CorporationSouth Canal StreetP.O. Box 130Greene, NY 13778-0130Fax: 607-656-9005 marcom@raymondcorp.com

 PartTec, an Indiana-based manufacturer of radiation detection equipment, has signed an agreement to manufacture and market an advanced neutron detector system developed at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory  (Oak Ridge, TN).
The Shifting Scintillator Neutron Detector system was developed for DOE’s Spallation Neutron Source and High Flux Isotope Reactor complex, the world’s most advanced neutron science facility. This system can determine the time and position of the neutron captured, enabling extremely accurate neutron time of flight measurements. It has large-area detector coverage, extremely low power requirements and digital communication capability, all factors that made it attractive to PartTec.
“PartTec has supported the work of the Spallation Neutron Source’s detector team for nearly five years with engineering, component manufacturing and management expertise,” said Herschel Workman, chief executive officer of PartTec. “The detector is proving itself in the POWGEN and VULCAN instruments at the SNS.”
Commercial interest in the product ranges from use at other neutron science facilities to security applications such as monitoring land, air and sea shipping for the presence of fissionable material.
Recently, because of constraints on helium-3 supply and the projected increasing demand, PartTec responded by re-engineering this detector system for use as an alternative to existing helium-3 detectors.
ORNL researchers developed the detector system to provide the very large detector areas (up to 45 square meters in the SNS POWGEN instrument) and high rates required by the SNS. Advances were made in neutron capturing scintillator, light collecting optics and data collection electronics. The data collection electronics uses a new and unique method of determining the neutron event location by encoding a bit pattern produced by single photons.
“The system is modular so that very large detector arrays can be built,” said Ron Cooper, a member of the development team at the SNS. “You can have greater than 50 square meters of detector coverage. It has high rate capability, good position resolution and features modern distributed personal computer-based electronics.”
This system, developed by Richard Riedel, Lloyd Clonts and Jason Hodges of ORNL’s Neutron Scattering Science Division, and Cooper, Lowell Crow, John Richards and Bruce Hannan of ORNL’s Neutron Facilities Development Division, is considered to be the leading candidate to replace helium-3 detectors at neutron scattering facilities throughout the world.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science. PartTec (www.parttec.com), which provides scientific research and advanced manufacturing services, has administrative and scientific offices in Bloomington, Ind., and engineering, design and manufacturing facilities in Linton, Ind.

Wärtsilä and Hitachi Zosen on March 2nd signed a business development agreement to develop and market fuel cell based power solutions for distributed power generation applications in Japan. The combined heat and power applications, which can be run on either city gas or bio gas, will feature the use of Wärtsilä’s fuel cell technology.
The applications will be developed in cooperation by both companies, and marketed by Hitachi Zosen. Wärtsilä and Hitachi Zosen will utilize and combine their vast experience in technology and business development to provide this new and competitive power solution for the Japanese distributed energy markets.
“The co-operation between Wärtsilä and Hitachi Zosen provides an important opportunity to optimise future fuel cell products to meet customer requirements, and to facilitate optimal application development. We are very pleased to start this partnership with Hitachi Zosen in order to develop and introduce Wärtsilä’s fuel cell products to the Japanese market. This is an important step towards the commercialisation of fuel cell technology,“ says Mr. Erkko Fontell, Director, Fuel Cells, Wärtsilä Finland.
Wärtsilä and Hitachi Zosen have enjoyed more than 20 years of close co-operation in developing the sale and construction of Wärtsilä equipment to the Japanese energy market. Numerous Wärtsilä oil and gas fired power plants have been sold and constructed in Japan as a result of this co-operation. 
Fuel cells are considered to be one of the most exciting energy technologies for the future. Since Wärtsilä’s fuel cells can efficiently utilise natural gas, city gas, and biogas as fuel, they produce almost zero nitrogen oxide (NOx), sulphur oxide (SOx) and particulate emissions, all of which are harmful to the environment.
Wärtsilä places strong emphasis on developing and applying technologies aimed at reducing the environmental impact of its products. The continuous development of more efficient, clean, and sustainable power solutions is an essential part of Wärtsilä’s strategy.  Fuel cell technology development supports this strategy by providing ultra clean and highly efficient solutions to the lower power range of Wärtsilä’s product portfolio.
Wärtsilä is one of the world’s leading companies in the development of fuel cell products based on SOFC (planar solid oxide fuel cell) technology. The development is supported by close collaboration with Danish Topsoe Fuel Cell A/S and the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.
Wärtsilä has delivered a fuel cell unit producing electric and heating power to the Vaasa Housing Fair site in Western Finland. This groundbreaking Wärtsilä FC20 has proven to be extremely successful. The power generating unit, which runs on landfill gas, has been in operation for more than 1500 hours, producing electricity and heat for local households without creating any significant levels of greenhouse gas emissions.
Wärtsilä’s competence centre for fuel cell technology is located at Otaniemi in Espoo, Finland. Operation of the fuel cell unit is supported by personnel from Wärtsilä’s engine laboratory in Vaasa, Finland. 

WärtsiläMr Erkko Fontell
Director, Fuel Cells (Product Centre Ecotech)
Wärtsilä Finland
Tel:  +358-107095228, +358 407544389
erkko.fontell@wartsila.comMs Tuula Franck
Senior Manager, External Communications
Wärtsilä Corporation
Mobile: +358 400267555
tuula.franck@wartsila.com
Hitachi ZosenMr Tadashi Suzuki
General Manager, Power Plant Sales Department Plant & Energy Headquarters Hitachi Zosen Corporation
Tel: +81 66569 0071
ta_suzuki@hitachizosen.co.jpMr Toshihiko Mabuchi
Senior Engineer, Power Plant Design Group Energy Design & Planning Department Plant & Energy Headquarters Hitachi Zosen Corporation
Tel: +81 66569 0209
mabuchi@hitachizosen.co.jp

Heliocentris Fuel Cells AG, a leading specialist in clean energy storage solutions reported on March 11^th a further order for the supply of an autonomous power supply solution for the laboratory area. The client is King Saud University, Riyadh, one of the most prestigious universities in Saudi Arabia.
“This project from Saudi Arabia represents the third major order which we have received from the Gulf within the space of just a few months”, says Dr. András Gosztonyi, CFO of Heliocentris, happily. “The project in Saudi Arabia underlines yet again our expansion strategy in the Middle East”, he adds.
Heliocentris will deliver an entire energy solution including a photovoltaic and wind power system. The solution includes a hybrid energy storage system consisting of a battery, fuel cell, electrolyzer and adapted power electronics that store the solar or wind power generated locally.
Saudi Arabia is particularly interested in the field of renewable energies. To mark the opening of the new “University of the Future”, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, the Minister for Oil and Natural Resources announced that Saudi Arabia wants to produce and export as much energy from solar power within the next 15 years as it is currently producing from fossil energy carriers.
Heliocentris Fuel Cells AG is a specialist for clean energy storage solutions based on a smart combination of batteries, fuel cells and energy management. Areas of application are mobile and stationary applications that require longer ranges than current batteries can provide. Examples are electric vehicles, onboard and emergency power supplies as well as electricity supply for off-grid applications such as monitoring stations or energy self-sufficient houses.  Heliocentris has been developing and marketing fuel cell-based energy solutions for more than 10 years now.
Heliocentris initially targeted the training and lab markets as typical pioneer markets, where it has successfully positioned itself as one of the worldwide market leaders. Since 2006, Heliocentris has been entering selected industrial markets with considerable growth potential. With customers in over 60 countries and a broad distribution and partner network, Heliocentris is globally well positioned. Heliocentris Fuel Cells AG is listed at the Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse (Entry Standard) and employs in total 50 staff with its head office in Berlin and a subsidiary in Vancouver, Canada. Further information is available at: www.heliocentris.com.
Dr. András Gosztonyi
CFO / Managing Director Heliocentris Fuel Cells AGRudower Chaussee 29
12489 Berlin
Germany
+49-(0)30-6392-6185
a.gosztonyi(at)heliocentris.com

A presentation at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition/National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (OFC/NFOEC) in San Diego on March 24 will examine the technologies that will emerge in the next three to four years to power warehouse-scale computing data centers, upon which companies such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook, and many more are increasingly relying.

The advent of distributed, massive-scale “cloud computing” today is something of a return to the early 1980s, when computing was of a different sort. Rather than individual desktop or laptop machines, which are the current norm, computers were usually time-shared among multiple users working on “dumb” terminals connected to a central machine—often located in some remote corner of the building.

Cloud computing basically makes use of the Internet to connect remote users to massive, warehouse-scale data centers that house large networks of processors and memory for crunching and storing data. These warehouse data centers promise to lower computing costs by sharing resources and taking advantage of economies of scale, says Network Architect Cedric Lam of Google, and they will relieve users of the hassles of maintaining and upgrading equipment and backing up their data.

But the real advantage of this type of computing, adds Lam, is portability. “Users enjoy the convenience of accessing their data from anywhere and at any time, so long as they have a network connection,” he says.

At OFC/NFOEC 2010, Lam will discuss the optical interconnects and other optical networking technologies that will emerge in the next few years. Low-cost, high-bandwidth and high-density optical fiber interconnects are essential for this type of computing because they make it possible to lower power consumption and increase connectivity among individual processors within the clusters of connected computers in the warehouses. Optical connectivity is also used for the ultra-long-haul transport of information between data centers.

On the long-haul side, what will be most important in the next few years, Lam says, is maximizing the capacity of existing and newly installed optical lines, and minimizing the need for OEO regenerators over long distances. He says this may be accomplished by exploring new optical spectra besides the traditional C-band, and new ways to carry information, e.g. using new modulation formats and signal processing techniques to improve spectral efficiency and tolerances to transmission impairments.

The OFC/NFOEC 2010 talk, “Google Optical Network,” presentation NWA3, will take place from 1:40 – 2:20 p.m. on Wednesday, March 24th.  The OFC/NFOEC Web site is http://www.ofcnfoec.org/. In addition to comprehensive technical programming information, the site includes details on the trade show and exposition, where the latest in optical technology from more than 500 of the industry’s key companies will be on display.