When you hear Toro Company and cutting edge, the first thing that comes to mind is probably hedge trimming, not innovation.
But the company has been tinkering now for nearly a decade on next-generation fuel cell vehicles at its Bloomington R&D facility.
Jack Gust, Toro's chief research and development engineer, says there's a growing demand from customers for electric vehicles. The types of turf vehicles it manufactures have to be light, and so several years ago they set out to find electric sources with the most energy-per-pound. Hydrogen-powered fuel cells are among the best potential sources by that measure, along with hybrid and lithium batteries.
The company started visiting fuel cell suppliers and attending conferences to learn about the technology early last decade, and then built its first hydrogen-powered prototype vehicle in 2004. After showing off the vehicle at trade shows, the company got a request from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority to build four more, which are used at Niagara Falls State Park.
The Toro Company
announced its third hydrogen fuel-cell project last month, a collaboration with Eden Prairie aerospace and defense firm ATK on two mid-duty utility vehicles for the military.
Gust says they've concluded that fuel cell technology is technically viable--"it works," he says--but it still costs too much today to mass-produce hydrogen-powered vehicles. The goal is to learn the technology now so that if and when prices improve the company can be ready to enter the market.
"We're kind of dabbling," says Gust. "Each time we do it, we're trying to just grow our knowledge on what we learned from the prior attempt. Each time we'll assess the technology a little more."
Source: Jack Gust, The Toro Company
Writer:
Dan Haugen