California Fuel Cell Bus Trials

 

Project Summary

A program to demonstrate seven fuel cell buses in regular transit service is underway through the California Fuel Cell Partnership, a collaboration between private companies and government entities committed to advancing and evaluating fuel cell technology for transportation. Three transit agencies will be the host sites for the demonstrations, with delivery of the first buses scheduled for the second half of 2005. The buses will operate for two years in regular transit service; a common data collection and evaluation plan has been agreed to by the three transit operators and the California Fuel Cell Partnership (the Partnership). All seven fuel cell buses are being developed specifically for this demonstration effort.


Van Hool is providing the bus body, to be equipped with UTC fuel cells, for demonstration at AC Transit.

Host Site

The buses will be demonstrated at three California transit properties: Alameda Contra Costa Transit (AC Transit) in Oakland, Santa Clara Valley Transportation Agency (Santa Clara VTA) in San Jose, and SunLine Transit Agency (SunLine) in Thousand Palms. They will be the first public transit agencies in the U.S. to implement fuel cell buses into regular revenue service. The transit partners' responsibilities include procurement, operation, and maintenance of the buses; installation, operation, and maintenance of hydrogen fueling infrastructure; modification of facilities to allow for safe maintenance of the buses; and transmission of data to evaluation partners.

AC Transit has entered into an agreement with ISE Research-ThunderVolt (ISE) of San Diego (a designer and integrator of fuel cell and electric hybrid propulsion systems) and UTC Fuel Cells of Connecticut for the delivery of four fuel cell buses, beginning in September 2005. Three buses will be owned and operated by AC Transit; the fourth bus will be owned and operated by SunLine Transit. Van Hool of Belgium has been contracted to build four 40-foot bus bodies for the fuel cell integration; Van Hool is also developing this 40-ft bus for AC TransitÕs diesel fleet. Each bus will be equipped with a hybrid fuel cell system integrated by ISE with a 170-kilowatt UTC fuel cell and with Zebra nickel sodium chloride batteries to provide acceleration and hill-climbing power as well as regenerative braking. AC Transit has secured a two-year warranty on the fuel cell powertrain.

Infrastructure: Two fueling stations are being put in place to service the buses. The first station, unveiled in 2002, uses a Stuart Energy electrolyzer that produces 24 kg/day of hydrogen; the stationÕs hydrogen storage capacity is 47 kg. Although the station currently can fuel only passenger cars, AC Transit plans to upgrade it to accommodate refueling of one or two fuel cell buses. A second station being constructed will be a dedicated refueling and maintenance center for the bus demonstration program. This it will be able to refuel three buses at 5,000 psi, produce 50/kg of hydrogen per bus per day. It is scheduled to open in 2004.

Santa Clara VTA, in partnership with the San Mateo County Transit District (SamTrans), is purchasing three 40-foot low-floor buses from Gillig Corporation located in California. Canadian fuel cell company Ballard Power Systems will supply the 205 kW fuel cell engines and will collaborate with Gillig on system integration. The buses will use compressed hydrogen tanks from Air Products and Chemicals, the industrial gas company headquartered in Pennsylvania. The buses are scheduled for delivery in 2005 and will undergo a two-year demonstration using the same data collection plan as the AC Transit and SunLine buses.

Infrastructure: Santa Clara VTA is equipping an existing facility for hydrogen storage, fueling and maintenance of the hydrogen buses. The hydrogen will be stored in liquid form, although the buses use compressed hydrogen. The agency contracted with Air Products to furnish and install cryogenic hydrogen storage equipment and to provide the liquid hydrogen. The facility will have two maintenance bays for the three buses.

SunLine Transit is purchasing one of the four buses being developed under the AC Transit contract with ISE Research-ThunderVolt. The bus will be identical to the three AC Transit buses: a 40-ft Van Hool busy body equipped with a 170-kilowatt cell from UTC Fuel Cells and Zebra battery. The fuel cell system will also have a two-year warranty. This will not be the first fuel cell bus demonstrated at SunLine: the agency was also host to the Partnership's first fuel cell-powered bus -- the ZEbus Š which completed an 18-month test in simulated service. The ZEbus is powered by a pre-commercial Ballard 205 kW fuel cell powerplant (the P4). In another Partnership fuel cell bus demonstration a hybrid fuel cell bus which underwent road testing and real-world passenger service at SunLine from October 2002 Š March 2003. ThunderPower LLC, a joint venture created by Thor Industries, Inc. and ISE Research, designed and integrated the 30-ft ElDorado National E-Z-Rider low-floor bus. The bus is equipped with a UTC Fuel Cells 60kW PEM fuel cell and advanced lead-acid batteries, which allow for regenerative breaking; ISE Research performed the system integration. NREL conducted the data collection and analysis for this demonstration, publishing a report on the results in November 2003.

Infrastructure: SunLine Transit has had hydrogen infrastructure in place since April 2000, when they opened a hydrogen generation, storage and fueling facility designed to demonstrate different approaches to hydrogen production. The facility includes a Stuart Energy electrolyzer and a Hyradix natural gas reformer.

 

Funding and Sponsors

The PartnershipÕs bus demonstration program is funded by local, state and federal government agencies. Overall, approximately $27 million will be provided for purchase of buses, infrastructure and operations. Each transit propertyÕs program is funded separately, with varying breakdowns of public vs private funds.

Funding Source AC Transit SunLine Transit Santa Clara VTA
Federal Government
$1.3 million
$1.5 million
$2.47 million
State/Local Government
$12.5 million
$1.30 million
Transit Agency(ies)
$1.10 million
$41.68 million
Other Sources
$110,000
$2.5 million
Total Funding
$15.01 million
$4 million
$18.45 million

 

Data Collection and Evaluation

The two-year data collection and evaluation for all three demonstration sites will be carried out by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The data collection plan has already been agreed upon by the transit agencies, the Partnership, and NREL, with input from other government agencies. The evaluation of real world service will allow NREL to compare the hydrogen buses to diesel and natural gas buses in the transit fleets. The data collection will cover:

AC Transit will evaluate the bus performance in comparison with their diesel buses, focusing on service in hilly areas, freeway express service and service on heavy-travel lines with over 20,000 passengers per day. The use of three buses will help differentiate systemic events from random events in the data analysis. SunLineÕs evaluation will explore the effects of desert heat on fuel cell operation, as well as comparing fuel cell reliability with that of natural gas (CNG) buses.