Paving the future route of hydrogen fuel cell buses.

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Fuel cell vehicles are moving from the laboratory to the road. General Motors is leasing 100 of its fuel cell-powered Equinox SUVs to participants in Project Driveway, a two- to three-year real-world demonstration program. And Honda will start leasing its FCX Clarity sedan

Many fuel cell buses are already in daily service. AC Transit in Oakland and SunLine Transit Agency, serving Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley, are operating 40 ft. Belgian-built Van Hool A330 transit buses. They are powered by ISE Corp.'s ThunderVolt TB-40FCH fuel cell and hybrid-electric drive systems. AC Transit has three and SunLine one.

New Flyer Industries in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, is building the world's first fleet of hydrogen fuel cell buses for BC Transit for initial use during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Whistler, British Columbia. The 40 ft., low-floor New Flyer buses will feature Ballard Power Systems' fuel cells and ISE Corp.'s hybrid drive system.

More ambitious was the recently completed European Clean Urban Transport for Europe (CUTE) and Ecological City Transport System (ECTOS) programs. Commencing in 2001, three-dozen Mercedes-Benz Citaro fuel cell buses operated in ten European cities: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Hamburg, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Porto, Stockholm, Stuttgart and Reykjavik. Beijing, China, and Perth, Australia, were added to the list later. The buses use two Ballard PEM modules in series that produce more than 250 kW of power. The project is being extended by CUTE's hydrogen fleet project to put 34 hydrogen fuel cell buses (a mix of existing and new buses) in operation in Amsterdam, Beijing, Barcelona, London, Luxemburg, Madrid, Perth and Reykjavik.

Transit buses are well suited to introduce fuel cell power on a large scale. For starters, it's easier to install fuel cell systems, still quite heavy and bulky, in large buses than in smaller cars and SUVs. Central refueling takes care of the lack of sufficient hydrogen refueling infrastructure issue. Transit agencies, at least the larger ones, have formal maintenance programs and trained mechanics who can more easily adapt to this more sophisticated technology. Finally, buses can be rolling billboards to publicize an agency's or community's commitment to "greener" transportation.

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In the U.S., much of the fuel cell bus development is done under the National Fuel Cell Bus Technology Initiative. This is a multiyear program to develop, deploy and commercialize fuel cell and hydrogen-powered drive systems for transit buses. The goal is to reduce costs and increase reliability and durability of fuel cells and hydrogen technologies for transportation by focusing on the best, early platform for fuel cell commercialization--the transit bus.

Recently, $24 million has been allotted to the National Fuel Cell Bus Technology Program (NFCBTP), which includes five major fuel cell bus technology development projects. Managed by Calstart, a nonprofit organization that works to develop advanced transportation technologies, the cooperative effort includes the Federal Transit Agency, several fuel cell and drive system developers, three transit districts and three major bus makers. The FTA is providing $12 million in funding; the rest is coming from participating companies. The objective is more affordable, higher performance fuel cell systems for transit buses and other applications in California. Qualitative goals include four to six years/20,000 to 30,000 hours of durability, greater than 90% availability, a cost of no more than five comparable conventional transit buses and emissions below 2010 EPA standards.

The NFCBTP is taking three parallel development paths to advance fuel cell technology. A direct approach will develop and accelerate testing of the best existing fuel cell systems. This path will be taken by the SunLine Transit Agency and AC Transit, both already operating fuel cell buses. BAE Systems' evolutionary path will combine smaller fuel cells with existing hybrid technologies. Finally, core enabling sub-systems needed for fuel cells to succeed will be pursued by U.S. Hybrid in Torrance, Calif.

Sunline is developing a purpose-built, next-generation American Fuel Cell Bus featuring an advanced 40 ft. New Flyer bus design that uses composite materials and modern electronics designed to reduce weight. An upgraded version of UTC Power's PureMotion 120 kW Model 120 fuel cell system will be installed. ISE Corp. will supply an advanced, lighter weight and lower cost electric motive drive system. Electrical energy will be stored in Lithium-ion batteries. SunLine will operate the American Fuel Cell Bus in the nine cities of the Coachella Valley, whose hot summers are a good test of the fuel cell's ability to operate in hot climates.

AC Transit's HyRoad, also a direct path project, will push the limits of existing technology based on experience with its three fuel cell buses. Objectives include accelerated testing, identification of the weakest areas of fuel cell and hybrid systems, root cause analysis, fuel cell technology development, and component upgrades with more reliable and durable systems. Data collected from benchmarking current systems is predicted to lead to yet undefined fuel cell and component upgrades roughly one year into the project.

The evolutionary path taken by BAE Systems uses its experience with its HybriDrive Propulsion System already installed in more than 1500 transit buses. The Compound Fuel Cell Hybrid Bus will combine a moderately sized and lightweight Hydrogenics fuel cell (15 to 25 kW) as an auxiliary power unit with the HybriDrive's 5.9 L Cummins ISB diesel engine, electric motor and lead-acid or Li-ion batteries. The goal is to double the fuel efficiency of a diesel bus in an affordable package. The resulting 40 ft. Orion bus will operate with San Francisco's Municipal Transportation Agency transit system for up to one year.

The Integrated Auxiliary Module (IAM) and Fuel Cell Bi-Directional Converter (BDC) from U.S. Hybrid are critical enabling systems for more reliable and lower-cost fuel cell bus operation. The IAM project will develop and demonstrate a single, low-cost, compact unit housing; the 200 amp, 24 V dc to dc converter; and dual 10 hp motor drives with CAN interface for auxiliary power needs aboard a fuel cell or hybrid fuel cell bus. The BDC project will optimize and streamline the complex energy flow between multiple devices, such as fuel cells, batteries and electric drive system. By standardizing the 400A rated bi-directional dc to dc converter module design, the unit can reduce weight and costs and increase efficiency of the fuel cell systems.

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