H2 hybrid bus

H2 hybrid bus Phileas: fuel-cell hybrid bus for cleaner urban traffic

Clean and quiet, ample passenger capacity and low energy consumption, this sounds like the blueprint for the bus of tomorrow. The “hydrogen bus” is an innovative approach to tomorrow’s local public transport. Its special feature: fuel cells powered by hydrogen. Emitted from the exhaust pipe is simply steam and nothing more. Developed by ATP and Vossloh Kiepe, this bus is one of a series of test vehicles for regular service in Amsterdam and Cologne.

City bus with hybrid drive including fuel cell

So that the vision may come true, a Dutch-German consortium led by Vossloh Kiepe has been developing this idea up to the stage of standard production: a city bus with series hybrid drive including fuel cell. The objective is a clean future for local public transport with no pollutant or noise emissions and this vision is becoming reality with the implementation of the corresponding hybrid fuel-cell bus concept.

Supporting the consortium are government departments in both Germany and the Netherlands. The Dutch government and the EU together with the European Regional Development Fund are sharing in the funding of the project as are the North Rhine-Westphalian (NRW) Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy plus the Ministry for Building and Transport.

(Photo: The NRW Minister of Economic Affairs, Christa Thoben, presented the confirmation of financial aid in February 2009 to Vossloh Kiepe at its Düsseldorf headquarters, thus announcing the go-ahead for the research project.)

Innovative lightweight construction and state-of-the-art drive technology

The hybrid fuel-cell bus is based on the Phileas series built by Advanced Public Transport Systems BV (APTS). With its lightweight modular design and weldfree reparability it is the ideal basis for a new kind of electric vehicle. In this way, innovative lightweight engineering is merged with advanced drive technology. Headquartered in Helmond, APTS is a member of the Dutch VDL Group that builds annually some 2,000 buses. The Phileas bus is specifically engineered for comfortable passenger transport on very busy services. The triple-axle vehicles have a comparatively high capacity for a hydrogen bus and are nonetheless very maneuverable thanks to multi-axle steering.

Drive system

In place of the previously installed diesel generator, the new Phileas has a fuel-cell system located in the rear of the vehicle. Energy is also supplied by batteries and supercapacitors. A brake-energy recuperator allows energy storage modules to be recharged by converting kinetic energy into electrical when the brakes are applied. The electricity thus generated can then be used for the next start-up phase. The supercaps are chiefly used for covering peak load demands (starting-up/accelerating) while the batteries handle normal/cruising load requirements. The fuel cell works much like a base-load power plant and continuously feeds electrical energy into the onboard energy storage module.

The complex series hybrid system is the brainchild of Vossloh Kiepe that is responsible for the energy manager and the energy storage units. The traction unit is an asynchronous motor rated at 240 kW.

The fuel cell is sourced from the Canadian manufacturer Ballard Power Systems. For base-load requirements it delivers up to 150 kW.

All the advantages at a glance

Hydrogen-driven buses are superior to diesels in many ways:

• Clean

Fuel-cell buses have zero emissions since the exhaust pipe emits nothing but steam. The exhaust gas can simply be termed “waste air.” Normal diesel engines, in contrast, operate at low efficiency especially when starting up and, moreover, they are dirty (soot emissions).

• Quiet

Fuel cells are very quiet. Such state-of-the-art energy converters may be seen as a major step toward “green” local public transport.

• Savings

These vehicles will operate without consuming limited oil resources. The entire system works extremely efficiently together with the fuel cells. Through the use of the series hybrid drive system combined with energy management, the consumption can be lowered by up to 25 percent and the life-time of the fuel cell significantly prolonged

• Ample space and speed

The lightweight vehicle has the same passenger capacity as a normal bus. So it combines the goals of a zero-emission local public transport vehicle with the ability to run on regular services. The top speed is 80 km/h.