Now that Sunline Transit and Ford have been rolling out hydrogen buses over the past year or two, primarily in the Western and Southern U. S., there has been a flurry of hydrogen bus activity in the Northeast U. S. as well.
On Monday, April 9, the University of Delaware unveiled a hydrogen fuel cell shuttle bus that will operate on its Newark campus. The hydrogen fuel cell EBus is being powered by a Ballard 19-kilowatt Mark9 SSL fuel cell stack, which is said to be the smallest shuttle bus fuel cell stack anywhere at this time. Air Liquide has built the hydrogen fueling station that will refuel the shuttle bus and future hydrogen vehicles.
On Tuesday, April 10, the Connecticut Department of Transportation, Greater Hartford Transit District, (CTTRANSIT) rolled out a hydrogen fuel cell hybrid electric bus, which will run daily upon the streets of Hartford. The AC Transit bus is powered by UTC Power’s PureMotion fuel cell system and will be tested in real world conditions including low and high speeds and steep grades.
Also, on Monday, the Centre Area Transportation Authority (CATA) announced that it will be running a shuttle bus fueled with a hydrogen blend around the Penn State University campus. The bus will be fueled by a blend of 30-percent hydrogen and 70-percent natural gas, which will reduce emissions significantly. A similar project in Nigambodh Ghat, India is also using the same hydrogen / compressed natural gas (CNG) blend.
So, get on the bus, Gus as in the very near future, there must be 50 ways to leave your fossil fuels behind.