Wal-Mart has concluded fuel cell-powered pallet truck beta trials at two of its Ohio-based distribution centers. Cellex Power Products says the zero-emission, hydrogen fuel cell-powered pallet trucks met and exceeded uptime, fueling, environmental and safety targets.

“This beta trial success is a significant milestone for Cellex from Wal-Mart’s perspective,” said Johnnie Dobbs, Wal-Mart’s executive vice president of Logistics and Supply Chain. “We really put these Cellex-powered vehicles to the test in our pallet truck applications and they did the job. Our pallet truck operators were most pleased with their performance and the ease of use. We now understand that operationally this new technology can be utilized in this application.”

Other companies associated with the trials included: BOC, a member of The Linde Group for hydrogen fuel; Ballard Power Systems, for Mark9 SSL fuel cell stacks; OKI Systems for service and support; Crown Equipment Corporation and Nissan Barrett for pallet trucks.

The beta completion is the culmination of a four-month long field trial of Cellex’s CX-P150 fuel cell product. Twelve rider pallet trucks worked in continuous operation, logging more than 18,500 hours of active work with over 2,100 indoor fueling occurrences by pallet truck operators.