Aug 10 - Datamonitor



United Natural Foods has announced that the hydrogen fuel cell technology project at its Sarasota, Florida distribution center is complete and is fully operational.

Designed to improve efficiency, productivity and reliability, 65 GenDrive fuel cell powered lift trucks have reportedly been mobilized at the Sarasota distribution facility.

The conversion of United Natural Foods's (UNFI's) Sarasota lift truck fleet to hydrogen fuel cells is expected to reduce carbon emissions by approximately 132 metric tons annually, an amount equivalent to the annual emissions of 35 automobiles, and is expected to create annual energy savings of approximately 640,000kWh, the company said.

Tom Dziki, senior vice president of sustainable development for UNFI, said: "We are pleased to successfully complete this project, which retrofitted 36 existing lift trucks to hydrogen fuel cell technology and added 29 new hydrogen fuel cell-powered lift trucks to our fleet."

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