Separate efforts by separate agencies in a variety of countries to put hydrogen fuel cell buses on the road have lead to the Fuel Cell Bus Club. Including 33 hydrogen buses in all, the Fuel Cell Bus Club is comprised of the ECTOS, STEP and CUTE agencies.
ECTOS out of Reykjavík, Iceland stands for Ecological City Transport System. Hydrogen is being produced primarily by geothermal and hydropower and dispensed at the one public station that opened earlier this year serving the buses and several Toyota Priuses including a couple owned by Hertz Rental.
STEP (Sustainable Transport Energy for Perth) is an Australian enterprise based in Perth. The Perth hydrogen fuel cell buses have set the standard within the Fuel Cell Bus Club in regard to fuel economy and reliability. BP captures “waste hydrogen” from a local oil refinery, then ships this to Perth for the buses.
CUTE (Clean Urban Transport for Europe) has supplied the hydrogen fuel cell buses for the EU, including the cities of London, Madrid, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Stockholm, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Perth and Luxembourg. Most of the buses in the Fuel Cell Bus Club were manufactured by DaimlerChrysler and carry XCELLSIS Fuel Cell Engines.
The point of the Fuel Cell Bus Club is to combine forces among these different agencies and demonstrate the 33 buses across different countries (including the Hydrogen Link Network) and share information on technology, such as design, construction and operation. The Fuel Cell Bus Club also wants to exchange experiences among its members and collect findings.
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