Fuel cells get motoring

Now you can catch the hydrogen bus Want to go to Ilford? The No. 25 from Oxford Circus could give you a glimpse of the future. That’s if you get on one of the new hydrogen buses. There are three of them in service now - a first for operators First Bus and quite a cute milestone for Transport for London too. CUTE indeed, both because the only emissions are water vapour, and because that’s the acronym for the Clean Urban Transport for Europe project. This nine-city umbrella is providing EU co-funding for an initiative running in parallel in London, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Hamburg, Luxembourg, Madrid, Porto, Stockholm and Stuttgart. Operating alongside existing double-deckers on the streets of London, the single-decker buses carry their hydrogen fuel in pressurised gas cylinders on the roof and can do 125 miles before they need refuelling. They’ll be switched between various routes in the course of their two-year trial to ensure they get a proper workout in all the conditions they might expect to encounter. BP is providing the refuelling facilities - a key element in the eventual roll-out of any fuel cell transport system. For the London trial the hydrogen will be re-formed from natural gas, but the company will demonstrate a range of other hydrogen technologies in five of the other CUTE cities. The buses themselves, which cost £750,000 each, are built by Daimler Chrysler.

But can you catch the car?

Enthusiastic pioneers of fuel cell transport have given the motor industry another prod. Admittedly, taking on the challenge of crossing Australia in a custom-made machine is one thing, and it’s quite another to get production models into the showroom and on to the streets in any volume. But still, full marks to the team from Tokyo’s Tamagawa University. Last December their car, Apollondine, completed the 4,084 km from Perth to Sydney in under nine days. Its electric motor was powered by a hydrogen fuel cell, and it drew additional power from roof-mounted solar photovoltaic panels, making it the first such hybrid vehicle to make the trip. The arrival of Apollondine - the name, appropriately, is a composite from the Greek gods of sun and water - marked a triumphant end to the 2003 Solar Hydrogen Challenge, organised by solar pioneer Hans Tholstrup to mark the 21st anniversary of his first solar-powered crossing of the continent. “We could have done it in four days but we didn’t want to take any chances,” said Tholstrup. “If you're asking when this technology could be commercially viable, then the answer is ‘how long is a piece of string?’” It would be viable tomorrow, he said, “if the price of oil hit $60 per barrel”. The hydrogen consumed by Apollondine en route came to a grand total of only 3 kg, or somewhat less than the equivalent weight of 4 litres of petrol, and the exhaust consisted, naturally, just of pure water - sampled on arrival by the Lord Mayor of Sydney. Now where could you buy PR like that? Hans Tholstrup, +61 0412 205 190

14 March 2004