Airport Business

OCT 2014

The airport professional's source for airport industry news, articles, events, and careers.

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SUSTAINABILITY used with an approved charger, the batteries offer the following benefits: • H i g h e n e r g y t h r o u g h p u t — u p t o 1 8 0 percent of C per 24 hours with an opportunity charging regime. • Long maintenance-free life cycle—up to 1,200 cycles at 60 percent DOD. • Short recharge times—less than three hours at 60 percent DOD. • More power in less space—the batteries typically take up a third less space than the equivalent lead calcium batteries. PRECONDITIONED AIR Meanwhile, outside a gate at Sarasota- Bradenton International Airport, a new more environmentally friendly PCA unit is being put to test with great results, according to Rick Hansen, president of the aptly named Verde GSE. "We didn't want to rush this product to market since we wanted to put it in a real-life environment and what we've heard from the airport has been very positive." Hansen recently started the company along with three other partners, including an engi- neer he had worked with during his career at Hobart Ground Power Systems. "We set out to build a different type of business to build a different type of unit," he adds. "We've incorporated the best of the refrigerant technologies from the automotive, food equipment, and aerospace industries to build a simple, low cost, yet technologically advanced PCA system. Hansen adds that the company's design principles are centered on four green principles: • Use of renewable materials, • Energy efficient products, • Quiet system operation, and • Ultra-low charge units and safer refrigerants. Hansen put a PCA unit running at 30-ton mode at Sarasota last summer and when we spoke to him, he was making plans to test a 60-ton unit at Orlando International Airport by September. "Having the units at these air- ports has helped us understand the customer requirements better," Hansen says. "And we have used the feedback to make some nice improvements." At Sarasota, the Verde unit was matched up with a competitor's unit and were instrumented by the airport to service an MD-80 aircraft. "What they discovered is the competitor's unit was pulling 85 amps, and our unit was pulling 55 amps," he adds. "Our unit was 35 percent more energy efficient. In addition our unit had 100 feet of hose between the unit and the aircraft and the competitor's unit 60 feet. So even though our unit had 40 more feet of hose, it was able to produce 10 degrees cooler air in the forward section of the aircraft and 6 degrees cooler air in the rear of the aircraft. We are very happy with these results." A c c o r d i n g l y, H a n s e n says the company will start actively marketing the PCA unit by October. FUEL CELLS Last June, Plug Power Inc. publicly demonstrated its Plug Power GSE fuel cell prototype this week, for the first time. T h e d e m o n s t r a t i o n involved a Charlatte cargo tractor, which pulled 40,000 pounds of heavy weight that was spread equally on four dollies. This demonstration took place at Plug Power's premises and the audience included Charlatte America, FedEx Express (the GSE operator and project partner) along with the executives of Plug Power and also the representatives from the Department of Energy. The company's newly engineered and designed hydrogen fuel cell beta unit promises to be a zero-emission power source for GSE, including auxiliary power units, tractors and belt loaders. Plug Power is trying to penetrate into the markets which are adjacent to the material handling business, where its GenDrive fuel cells have already proven their worth. The company plans in the next phase of the project to deliver 15 Plug Power GSE fuel cells to FedEx at Memphis Airport by the fourth quarter of 2014. In conjunction with the GSE fuel cells, Plug Power will provide a GenFuel hydrogen infrastructure that includes: • Scalable hydrogen supply that can ramp up from fueling 15 demo units to fueling an entire fleet of commercial units, without additional investment. • Low cost liquid hydrogen that offers accel- erated fuel savings as the number of GSE tugs in operation increases As you can see airports are not the only ones striving to green their operations. Check out what's going on in the ground handling operations at your airport. These operations are going green too! www.aviationpros.com/10017751 Verde GSE is currently testing its PCA unit at two airports in Florida. 40 airportbusiness October 2014

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