FuelCellsWorks

Stuttgart/Vienna – The new Mercedes-Benz Citaro FuelCELL Hybrid city bus is celebrating its world premiere from June 7 to11 at the UITP World Congress and Mobility & City Transport Exhibition in Vienna. The fuel cell hybrid bus is the first vehicle in Daimler Buses’ new generation of fuel cell buses. It combines the advantages of the diesel-electric Citaro G BlueTec Hybrid, which was unveiled a few months ago, with those of the hydrogen-powered Citaro fuel cell buses, which have delivered impressive performance in fleet tests.

An exceptional feature of the Mercedes-Benz Citaro FuelCELL Hybrid is its outstanding environmental friendliness. The bus runs without emitting any pollutants and is virtually silent, making it ideal for use in highly congested inner cities and urban areas.

“As the world’s largest bus manufacturer with a claim to technological leadership, we always strive to be at the forefront of developments leading to zero-emission local public transportation,” says Hartmut Schick, Head of Daimler Buses. “We are delighted for the opportunity in Vienna to present our new regular-service city bus to international decision-makers for the first time.” Headquartered in Brussels, the International Association of Public Transport (French designation: Union Internationale des Transports Publics, UITP) is the global organization for local public transport authorities and operators. It brings together transport companies, the supply industry, public authorities, and traffic researchers from more than 90 countries.

The Mercedes-Benz Citaro FuelCELL Hybrid was developed within the framework of Daimler’s global commercial vehicle initiative “Shaping Future Transportation.” The initiative is to be aimed at using clean, efficient drive systems and alternative fuels to make zero-emission commercial vehicles a reality in the future. The Shaping Future Transportation initiative calls for sparing use of resources and reductions of all kinds of emissions while at the same time guaranteeing maximum traffic safety.

“Our new fuel cell hybrid bus is the next step on the road to zero-emission transportation. The objective of this development is to emphasize our technological leadership on a sustained basis,” says Schick. The engineers who developed the bus were able to call upon the Group’s specific expertise in this field. The fuel cell systems used, for example, are identical with those installed in the Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-CELL passenger car, for which small-lot production will begin later this year. Several components were also borrowed from the B-Class F-CELL, with developers mutually benefiting from their respective test results.

Daimler Buses will produce a small batch of about 30 vehicles of this new generation of fuel cell buses and offer them to European mass transit companies. Beginning in fall, Daimler Buses will be conducting extensive, large-scale testing of the Mercedes-Benz Citaro FuelCell Hybrid bus in a number of European cities. This test series will proceed along the lines of the successful CUTE fleet test conducted by the European Union between 2003 und 2006. Since 2003, a total of 36 Mercedes-Benz Citaro buses equipped with fuel cell drives have displayed top performance for 12 public transport agencies on three continents as part of the CUTE test and other related testing programs. During approximately 135,000 hours of operation the buses were driven a combined total of more than two million kilometers, and the environmentally friendly fuel cell drive system impressively demonstrated its ability to function properly under everyday operating conditions.

Daimler is the global market leader for commercial vehicles with diesel hybrid drives. The first two Mercedes-Benz Citaro G BlueTec Hybrid buses will be delivered to Rotterdam and Hamburg at the end of this year. An additional 250 customers were impressed by the outstanding features of this bus model at a driving demonstration that was put on this past March.

So far 1,700 Orion hybrid buses have been delivered to customers in the U.S. and Canada, and a further 1,100 have been ordered. In addition, more than 200 Freightliner hybrid trucks have gone into operation, and another 200 such models will be delivered to UPS beginning in 2009. And Freightliner will put more than 1,500 medium-duty hybrid trucks on the road over the next three years. Meanwhile, the Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation is offering the Fuso Aero Star Eco Hybrid bus, and 25 of these vehicles are already being used by customers.

Eco Factor: Concept vehicle powered by hydrogen fuel cells and solar energy.

Student designer Damian Lucaciu from the RMIT University, Australia, has envisioned the future of taxis, which unlike today will be more ecofriendly and sport the best in eco-technology. The designer has carefully addressed the needs of an average Australian passenger in the year 2020 in a car he calls the Melbourne TAXI 2020. The primary focus of the design rests on being green, practical, comfortable and above all passenger-friendly.

Continue Reading “TAXI 2020 hopes to green Australian streets with fuel cells and solar power”

Just completed zero-emission trip from California

Premier Campbell greets hydrogen-powered car (News1130 Photo)

The Viking 29, the world’s first thermophotovoltaic-powered car was one of 12 fuel cell vehicles on display as part of the Hydrogen Road Tour in Red Square June 2. // photo by Keith Daigle THE WESTERN FRONT

On first glance, the cars parked in Red Square Tuesday, June 2, appeared ordinary. What drew the crowds, however, is what was under the cars’ hoods.
In collaboration with Western’s Vehicle Research Institute (VRI), the California Fuel Cell Partnership (CaFCP) made a stop at Western to showcase 12 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles as part of their 2009 Hydrogen Road Tour.
According to the CaFCP Web site, the Hydrogen Road Tour is a nearly 1,700 mile West Coast tour to promote hydrogen fuel cell-powered vehicles, which is a cleaner alternative to gasoline. The tour spanned from Chula Vista, Calif., to Vancouver, B.C.
The hydrogen fuel cell vehicles feature various car manufacturers, including Volkswagen, Honda and Toyota, and were on display for onlookers to view and ask questions.
According to the CaFCP’s Hydrogen Road Tour pamphlet, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles run off of stored electricity from hydrogen and oxygen.
“I don’t think people really understand how important these cars are,” said Western senior and vehicle engineering technology major Axel Schmidt. “They represent some of the highest levels of technology in the engineering world.”
The stop was also a chance for Western’s VRI to showcase several of its project cars, which ran on a variety of alternative fuel sources besides hydrogen fuel cells.
Some of the VRI vehicles displayed included the Viking 20, a solar powered car, the Viking 46, a formula-style racer, and the Viking 29, the world’s first thermophotovoltaic-powered car.
VRI alumnus Ben Vos said the Viking 29 is basically a solar-powered car that does not rely on sunlight. Vos said a natural gas flame heats up a black ceramic tube in the car, which is filled with a material that emits infrared light energy. This infrared light is picked up by special solar cells that convert the light to electricity for the car’s battery, he said.
One of the VRI vehicles, the Viking 32, runs on methane, which is collected from cow waste. While this may seem unusual, VRI director Eric Leonhardt said this fuel source is a real possibility in Whatcom County.
“We could power probably 20 to 40 thousand cars in Whatcom County,” Leonhardt said. “And that’s including big trucks as well.”
Western senior and vehicle design major Ben Romeijn-Stout said methane is harvested from organic waste by pouring the waste into ananaerobic digester, which is a building that decomposes the matter over the period of about a month. The methane is then harvested off the top, he said.
“It turns [the waste] into excellent soil actually,” Romeijn-Stout said “It has a lot of nutrients in it.”
Vos said while engineers are in a unique position in Whatcom County to make biomethane from dairy waste, it is not limited strictly to this area.
“Biomethane also works from human waste, fish guts, chicken breading—anything organic that will rot can be put in the digester,” Vos said.
Vos said even urban areas without farms, like Seattle, could harvest biomethane from their sewage treatment plants.
Chris White, communications director for CaFCP, said biomethane is a promising technology, but it is still in the developmental stages. She and the California Fuel Cell Partnership are pushing for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
“California has more hydrogen fuel stations than any other region in the world,” White said. “We have 26 stations. Next to us is Germany, then Japan and then Canada.”
White said participating automakers are looking at early commercial models of fuel cell vehicles, such as the ones on display Tuesday in Red Square. They expect thousands of vehicles will begin to be sold between 2012 and 2014 and tens of thousands by around 2017.
Schmidt said while proponents of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles like to claim that the vehicles run clean, the actual process of extracting the hydrogen for use in the vehicles leaves a large carbon footprint.
“It’s a newer technology, so it still has its bugs to work out,” Schmidt said.
Regardless of which alternative fuel source is the “right” one, White, Vos and Leonhardt agree that diversification is key.
“We would be a very foolish country to put so many eggs in one basket again,” White said. “We have to have multiple fuels, and multiple sources of making those fuels.”
Besides the economic vulnerability of relying on one source of fuel, Schmidt said the United States’ dependence on fossil fuels is one of the leading causes of global climate change.
“Finding alternate sources of fuel is important because our supply of oil is finite,” Schmidt said. “I think people assume that this problem of running out of oil is something that our kids or grandkids will have to deal with, but if we continue to consume oil as we do now, it will be a serious problem in our lifetime.”

It’s a bright, warm Southern California afternoon and I’m driving north on the I-405 from Irvine to Torrance, in the carpool lane at 80-plus miles per hour, in an electric car which makes its own electricity.

Let that sink in for a second.

Last Tuesday I was given the opportunity to pilot a Honda FCX Clarity hydrogen-fueled fuel cell EV, which the company is leasing to a few select SoCal drivers. I drove from UC Irvine about 30 miles to Torrance City Hall (just down the street from American Honda’s 100-acre national headquarters campus).

This was the first day of the Hydrogen Road Tour ‘09, sponsored by the Air Resources Board and several other public and private groups. The tour traveled from Chula Vista to Vancouver, BC, about 1,700 miles, with 28 stops along the way to allow the public to “ooh” and “aah” (it was in Santa Monica last Wednesday).

Besides Honda, there were fuel cell EVs from six other car-makers: GM, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Kia, Nissan and Toyota. And they all made it from Point A to B during my section of the drive with no need for a chase truck to flatbed them in at the end of the day.

In the car with me are two top Honda executives from the company’s fuel cell division, my photographer and a gentle whine emanating from the basketball-sized electric drive unit powering Clarity’s two front wheels. Though the car is as aerodynamic as they come, with wind noise at a minimum, the sound from outside is louder than any racket the car itself is making.

A vessel holding hydrogen pressurized at 5,000 pounds per square inch sits between the rear wheels. It’ll get Clarity about 200 miles before a refill.

The gas flows through race car-like plumbing lines into fuel cell “stacks” beneath the cockpit’s center console. That’s where the magic happens, where hydrogen is turned into electricity which powers the car and all its systems, with but one emission: pure water.

What’s now become electricity then travels into the engine compartment (or in this case, the motor compartment) where computers and controllers divvy up the power as needed for the drive unit, the electric air conditioning, electric power steering, electric drive-by-wire throttle, nav system and stereo, instrument panel, interior and exterior lights, even to operate the hydrogen gas sensor in the cockpit.

Apart from the small amount of lubricant used in Clarity’s one-speed transmission, no other oil products are needed by the car. Even the seat material is made out of plant fiber. And Clarity is a plenty big four-door sedan, with copious leg and headroom front and rear, weighing-in at about 3,600 pounds.

The ride is smooth, quiet, fast and fun. On this day we’re not on some well-protected test track, but barreling along with the mid-day So Cal flow, braking hard and flicking the wheel to dodge junk in the roadway and casually making lane changes with nary a care in the world. If it wasn’t illegal, I’d probably be texting, too.

After about five minutes in the pilot’s seat, FCX Clarity becomes just another car, just another Honda-type conveyance/appliance. The car fits in so well with others on the road that it barely draws a glance from other motorists.

There remain many questions about the technology, from how to “manufacture” the hydrogen to delivering it to fueling stations, from how much energy it takes to make the electricity to real concerns about their cost.

One thing became clear after spending a day with fuel cell engineers from seven of the world’s biggest car companies: they’re all on the same page when it comes to answering their critics, and they’re going to be more vocal and forceful about confronting what they call “flawed” information and taking their message to the public and government.

The real battle for our EV hearts and minds is about the begin.

Steve Parker is the automotive blogger for the Huffington Post (www.HuffingtonPost.com/steve-parker), a consultant and contributor for the NBC-TV automotive show Whipnotic and its companion Web site (www.Whipnotic.com), and can be heard live and worldwide every Saturday and Sunday starting at 5 p.m. Pacific time on www.TalkRadioOne.com. His home site is www.SteveParker.com and his column, Tornante, runs exclusively every week in the SMDP.