The global economic recession has not slowed down hydrogen bus development from South America to Europe. In fact both Brazil (congratulations on winning the recent soccer battle) and the Czech Republic have decided to unveil their separate hydrogen fuel cell buses to the world.
In Sao Paulo, Brazil up to 5 hydrogen fuel cell hybrid buses will be purchased, tested and refueled at a central location. The buses also use regenerative braking to help recharge the battery system.
Sao Paulo has the world’s largest bus fleet with 50,000 units manufactured each year and 90-percent of the pollution in that city is due to cars, buses and other engine-powered vehicles. So, the introduction of zero emission vehicles such as hydrogen buses makes sense on the air quality issue alone.
In the Czech Republic, hydrogen fuel cell hybrid buses are also being introduced. The testing of this type of vehicle (pictured) is being called the TriHyBus project. The bus uses a 48 kw Proton fuel cell along with a bank of ultracapacitors.
Regenerative braking is also being used to recharge the ultracapacitors and the Linde Group will be building the hydrogen refueling station in the town of Neratovice and delivering the compressed hydrogen gas from off site.
So, two very different countries thousands of miles apart see the value in developing hydrogen vehicle technology in order to combat tailpipe emissions and gain energy independence. Now, if only the current U. S. administration was so wise we’d all have much more hope for a cleaner and greener future.
I fail to see energy independece when our crude oil comes from Russia, and the natural gas reformed into Hydrogen also comes from Russia.