Fuel Cell Power Pack for 24V Scrubber

Abstract

Tennant Company, a leader in commercial and industrial cleaning equipment, wishes to modify one of their most popular floor scrubbers, the T3, to operate on a fuel cell rather than lead-acid batteries. In addition to environmental concerns raised by use of lead-acid batteries, Tennant’s wishes for longer run time and quicker refueling motivated the choice of a NEXA PEM fuel cell for this application. It is our objective to research alternate methods of onboard hydrogen storage and power transfer between the fuel cell and the T3 scrubber, design and build necessary mechanical and electrical interfaces and power management systems, fabricate a proof-of-concept prototype, and quantify performance characteristics of our prototype.