The nation’s first multi-use industrial park fueling station to supply hydrogen directly for industrial, commercial, and government use has opened in South Carolina.
Logistics provider GENCO ATC has partnered with customers Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Plug Power Inc., Air Products, and the Aiken-Edgefield Development Partnership to launch the facility:
The fueling station supplies hydrogen directly to Kimberly-Clark’s 450,000-square-foot distribution facility managed by GENCO ATC to be used with fuel cells powering Toyota forklifts. Both the fueling station and the Kimberly-Clark facility are located in Sage Mill Industrial Park, Graniteville, South Carolina.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony and technology demonstration will take place inside the Kimberly-Clark facility on Friday, February 11, 2011 at 11 a.m. and will feature several executive speakers and Bobby Harrell, Speaker of the South Carolina House of Representatives.
“Kimberly-Clark is constantly looking for innovative ways to minimize the impact of our operations on the environment,” said Rick Sather, Vice President of Customer Supply Chain at Kimberly-Clark. “We are pleased to partner with GENCO ATC, Plug Power and Air Products to help expand hydrogen fuel cell technology to our entire forklift fleet. This energy technology can reduce our carbon emissions by hundreds of metric tons per year, lower costs and drive efficiencies to power our operations.”
The project got some help from $1.1 million of a $6.1 million cost-share award made to GENCO ATC by the U.S. Department of Energy.