Hydrogen Fuel Cell Bus Technology State of the ... - NEXTHYLIGHTS

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Bus Technology State of the Art Review
Hybrid fuel cell bus trials, by contrast, have shown relatively poor availability (55-
80%) in trials before 2010. These will need to be improved before the technology
can be rolled out outside small demonstration trials. The next generation of hybrid
fuel cell bus trials (starting 2010) are designed to prove that the technology can
achieve availability standards over 90% which will be sufficient to begin to
commercialise the technology.
The next generation of bus demonstrations (such as those in the EC funded CHIC
project 2 ) are also aimed at understanding the fuel economy of next generation FC
buses. Initial tests suggest they will achieve the lower bound of the fuel consumption
range, i.e. up to a 40% improvement over an equivalent diesel route (on a calorific
equivalent basis).
The main technical constraints for fuel cell buses, compared to conventional diesel
vehicles are:
o Availability – an equivalent operational availability compared to diesel
vehicles has not yet been demonstrated for fuel cells in hybrid configurations.
This is expected to be achieved in the next generation demonstrations.
o Fill time – which is currently around 10 minutes (best available is 7 minutes),
compared to a diesel fill times of approx. 3 minutes. This can create logistical
problem for bus operators, particularly in tight urban depots.
o Lack of infrastructure – meaning that dedicated hydrogen fuelling
infrastructure is required at hydrogen bus depots – this is bulky and also
requires very high availability as there are no local back-up options available
Hybrid fuel cell buses – economic performance
Diesel hybrid vehicles are currently gaining traction in the market for environmentally
friendly urban buses. These have a total cost of ownership higher than diesel buses,
suggesting public authorities are prepared to fund some additional cost of operating
low emission vehicles.
However, a Total Cost of Ownership analysis for today‟s fuel cell buses suggests
that the cost of operating a fuel cell bus today is over three or four times that of a
conventional diesel bus. This additional cost is not acceptable to bus operators,
meaning the technology must reduce in cost to gain genuine commercial traction.
There are two main approaches to cost reduction. In the first, progressive
generations of fuel cell systems designed for buses are projected to reduce fuel cell
system costs below €2,000/kW (from over €4,000/kW today), whilst increased
2 http://chic-project.eu/
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