Hydrogen Use in Transport

Public Transport

The largest commercial demonstration of Hydrogen fuelled public transport was carried out by the HyFleet project team in Europe and Australia. These projects were operated under the; European CUTE (Clean Urban Transport for Europe), the Icelandic ECTOS (Ecological City Transport System) and Australian STEP (Sustainable Transport Energy Perth) programs [1]. There have been numerous smaller projects but none to the same scale. Canada has commissioned 20 fuel cell buses to be built for the British Columbian Transit service which will be the largest single fleet of hydrogen buses. These buses will enter service for the 2010 winter Olympics and continue operation in regular service after the games.

The HyFleet: CUTE program is the largest hydrogen bus program which began in 2004 and is not scheduled to finish until December 2009. A total of 47 buses have taken part in the program spanning over 10 different cities (including; London, Madrid, Berlin, Stockholm, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Luxembourg, Amsterdam, Porto and Barcelona). The project has received financial support from the European Commission as well as local Governments. The CUTE project alone cost, 43.03 million euros. The European Commission funded 18.99 million euros of this and the rest came for the participating local Governments [2]. This support has been used in setting up the required infrastructure such as the hydrogen filling stations, the lease and operational maintenance costs of the buses and relevant licensing.

Daimler built 33 of the buses on the project operating with direct drive fuel cells while MAN provided a further 14 internal combustion hydrogen engines. Vital statistics from the project show that the combined total mileage covered by all of the buses up until June 2008 was in excess of 2.5 million km consuming 335 tonnes of hydrogen with bus reliability in the range of 90-95%. On top of this, over 3.5 million passengers used the service saving approximately 1 million litres of diesel and 2500 tonnes of CO2 emissions (calculated including CO2 offset from hydrogen production as depicted below) [3].

Public and bus driver opinion polls have been conducted throughout the project lifetime to gauge the perception of introducing fuel cell vehicles. The public were asked about how safe they feel using the buses as well as their willingness to pay a higher fare for a bus ticket knowing they’d be contributing to improving the environment.

In 2004/2005, 600 bus users in Perth, Australia (where the STEP project was demonstrated) were surveyed. The introduction of hydrogen powered buses received a mixed reception between those in support of the project and those who were unsure and wanted more information about the subject before making a decision. Approximately 94% of those surveyed believed it was a good idea that Australia was trialling such technologies with the remaining 6% against or indifferent to the scheme. When asked about the permanent introduction of hydrogen powered vehicles however, only 43% supported the idea with 54% stating they required more information. 23% of the participants still associated hydrogen with the word ‘bomb’ and the Hindenburg disaster. However, 90% of the people said they would be willing to pay a higher bus ticket price to fund the costs of buying and operating the vehicles and 50% agreed to a $20pa tax increase [4].

The same questions were asked of regular bus users in other cities involved in the Hyfleet bus projects. The conclusions drawn from London, Luxembourg and Berlin followed similar trends to those obtained in Perth. The vast majority of responses given to the question about the permanent introduction (not just trials) of hydrogen vehicles from all four cities were either ‘don’t know’ or ‘require more information’. This indicates the general public needs more exposure to the technology to be able to from opinions about the subject. However, only 4 people from all surveys said they were actually opposed to the permanent introduction of hydrogen vehicles to their cities [5].

References:

[1] http://www.global-hydrogen-bus-platform.com/

[2]http://cordis.europa.eu/fetch?CALLER=FP6_PROJ&ACTION=D&DOC=4&CAT=PROJ&QUERY=1203955123301&RCN=85636

[3] www.eltis.org/PDF/generate_pdf.php?study_id=2109&lan=en

[4] Public Perception and Economic Preferences towards the use of H2FC buses in Perth, Author: Lisa Garrity, Murdoch University

[5] AcceptH2: Public Perception of Hydrogen Buses in Five Countries, Author: Altmann et al, International German Hydrogen Energy Congress 2004