Ecology, Energy, EU – Baltic States, Legislation, Transport

Hydrogen-driven or fuel-cell buses (FCEB) can use presently cost-effective shifts before being refuelled quickly at bus depots; they are quiet and produce no carbon or particulate emissions, thus minimising their environmental and health impacts.

The buses are powered by electro-chemical cells that combine hydrogen stored in high pressure tanks with oxygen from the air to generate electricity, heat and water. Performance compares use more established diesel, trolley (tram) and battery bus technologies, turning them into FCEB-like buses.

Managers for some transport projects, e.g. Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU), which is a public-private partnership that is funding research and demonstration projects, are seeking to enable the commercialisation of fuel cell technologies.

These buses are clean, smooth and easy to drive. Thus, a fuel cell bus can drive for 300-450 kilometers before it needs to be refuelled, says an FCH JU report. This gives the technology an edge over most established battery buses, which have more limited ranges. And as they carry enough fuel on board for a full shift, the buses need very little route infrastructure, unlike trolley buses and some battery buses.

Capacity-building

The FCH JU now supports 67 of the buses in Europe. It has published a call for proposals for a trial of at least 100 buses. Should this demonstration be successful, it will increase confidence in investing in fuel cell bus fleets. Existing interest from bus operators could expand Europe’s fleet to over 500 buses, with a potential European market worth €1.5 billion.

Some predict that fuel cell buses could catch up to battery bus production and technical levels in 5-10 years. Europe has achieved a leadership status worldwide because of bringing the demand and supply sides together. These efforts could be the first step in developing a fully competitive market using hydrogen-based zero-emissions urban transport; the implications are enormous in terms of the environment, job creation and economic development.

In the last 15 years, fuel cell buses have improved greatly. Hydrogen fuel efficiency has increased threefold to around 8-9 kg H2/100 km, while refuelling times have more than halved to under 10 minutes. However, only 91 fuel cell buses are operating in Europe, the FCH JU estimates.

Fuel cell buses are not used widely in the EU cities; part of the reason is that they are still a young technology. But bus fleet operators are reluctant to invest in the new vehicles without concrete evidence of the risks and returns involved, while low demand makes them expensive to build and limits post-sales support.

To address these barriers, small-scale demonstration trials of fuel cell buses have been taking place in commercial fleets around the world and in the EU. These provide data on costs and good operational practice, improve economies of scale and supply chains, give operators a say on how to develop bus models, and raise public awareness of the technology.

Key trials based in Europe include:

- CUTE. The first EU-funded trial, having started in 2003. It tested fleets of three buses in nine European cities over three years.

- This project extended small-fleet demonstrations to 10 cities on three continents, funding a total of 47 buses.

- High V.LO-City, HyTRANSIT and 3Emotion. These FCH JU-funded projects are trialling bigger fleets of around 20 buses in more cities.

These demonstration projects have been successful with operators and passengers alike. For example, as part of CHIC, a small fleet of eight fuel cell buses in London (UK) has operated along a busy route popular with tourists. It has performed so well that the participating transport company now intends to expand its hydrogen fleet.

About Highvlocity

The High V.LO-City project aims at accelerating the integration of a new generation of FCH buses (14 FC buses will be operating in Scotland (UK), Liguria (IT) and Flanders (BE)) in public transport fleets by demonstrating the technical and operational quality.

See in: http://highvlocity.eu/

As FCEB technology has matured, the industry and transit operators are increasingly seeing economics, as well as air quality, as drivers for deployment. As some say, “we are not talking about sustainability anymore; we are talking about saving money”.

U.S. Department of Energy shows that the average fuel economy of fuel cell electric buses is 1.4 times higher than conventional diesel buses. At the same time, political will is vital, as regulations and incentives are essential to accelerate the momentum for FCEB deployment.

See: http://blog.ballard.com/top-4-myths-about-hydrogen-powered-buses

Trials in cities around the world have demonstrated that fuel-cell passenger buses can cut emissions and noise pollution while providing good quality public transport. New EU-funded projects could double Europe’s fleet of hydrogen buses – reducing vehicle and infrastructure costs per bus to boost take-up of the technology.

https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/news/cleaner-urban-transport-hydrogen-buses

Useful links on the issue: = CHIC  CORDIS; = High V.LO City CORDIS; = HyTransit   CORDIS; = 3Emotion  CORDIS; = Videos.

See also: The Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU), and = “Environmentally friendly, efficient electric motion - 3emotion”. In: http://www.3emotion.eu/.