Lead University: Lehigh University
PI: Emory W. Zimmers, Jr.
Co-PIs: Robert Gustafson and Doug Sunday
Lehigh University Enterprise Systems Center (ESC) has a mission of providing students with experiential learning and leadership development opportunities and helping industry partner companies to improve their global competitiveness through high ROI consulting projects.
Philadelphia Scientific (PS) is a world-leading provider of products and services for motive power and standby batteries, operating from North America, Europe, Southeast-Asia & Asia-Pacific. The creator and manufacturer of many market-leading products, PS continuously develops new innovations to serve the industry. This excellence in engineering, combined with a passion for quality, has made PS one of the most trusted brands in the marketplace today.
Lehigh ESC is proposing to do an independent analysis of the cost benefit to purchase and maintain lead acid batteries vs other systems to power fork lift fleets. We would compare these cost of ownership to systems – manual monitoring systems, advanced automated monitoring systems and fuel cell systems.
The project would use an extensive database compiled by Philadelphia Scientific along with data available through East Penn to complete the cost analysis. The proposal will include interviews of facilities using fuel cells and compile a comparison database. The deliverable would be an analysis describing the life cycle cost comparisons.