On the 10th of March 2020, the Region of North Denmark and the Municipality of Aalborg proudly announced the operation of the very first Fuel Cell Bus in Denmark.
The bus was quickly followed by the next two fuel cell buses that started their operation on the 16th of March.
The three fuel cell buses – co-financed by the 3Emtion project – are from the Belgian bus manufacturer, Van Hool, their new model A330. They are all equipped with fuel cells from the company Ballard which is part of the cluster organization, Hydrogen Valley, in Denmark.
One of the buses will drive on city route 17 (Saltumvej-Strubjerg) and will be operated by Keolis. The two other buses will drive on the regional route 72 (Aalborg-Hjørring), and are both operated by Arriva. All three buses are planned to drive around 150.000 km per year and transport around 1 million passengers. They will save the environment for about 60.000-liter diesel and furthermore save 131 tons CO2 every year, including contributing to a substantial reduction of harmful particles in the city environment.
The three fuel cell buses will refuel at the newly installed hydrogen refueling station in Aalborg East, delivered by the Danish company, Green Hydrogen. The station consists of an electrolyzer that produces the hydrogen with green electricity, three storage containers that will store the hydrogen at 35 bar, 350 bar, and 450 bar, and finally a dispenser to put hydrogen into the buses.
The buses have a minimum range of 350 km per refueling and can contain 38 kg of hydrogen per bus.
Region North Denmark and the Municipality of Aalborg have a common goal to be first movers in the green transition of the heavy-duty transport in Denmark, including public transport. The fuel cell buses are zero-emission buses and do therefore contribute to Denmark’s goal of making all public transport in Denmark emission-free before 2030.
Even though the fuel cell buses are in operation, an official inauguration has not yet been held, due to COVID-19. The fuel cell buses will together with the hydrogen refueling station be properly inaugurated and presented to the public when possible.
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