Five Fuel Cell Bus Projects Now Underway

CALSTART, North America's leading advanced transportation technology organization, has secured and launched contracts for five major fuel cell bus technology development projects with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), an important part of CALSTART's overall hydrogen pathways strategy.

The newest $24-million effort involves multiple fuel cell and drive
system leaders, three transit districts and three major bus makers. It
drives forward a focused, multi-year strategy to speed key improvements
in fuel cell reliability, system design and component design. The goal
is more affordable, higher performance fuel cell systems becoming
available for transit bus and other uses. The FTA is providing
$12-million in funding; the private companies involved provide the
balance.

"CALSTART and its project teams are part of a comprehensive National
Fuel Cell Bus Technology Program to help knock down the barriers to
commercial use of clean fuel cell technology in transit over the next
several years," said FTA Administrator James Simpson.  "This partnership
with the leaders in the transit industry will spur - and speed -
innovation."

CALSTART's strategy to rapidly advance fuel cell technology utilizes
three parallel development paths: a direct route that develops and
accelerates testing on the best existing fuel cells; an evolutionary
route that combines smaller fuel cells with other supporting
technologies; and a component route that develops the core enabling
sub-systems fuel cells will need to succeed.  The five projects include:

* SunLine Transit Agency's American Fuel Cell Bus - The focus of
this direct path project, based at SunLine Transit Agency,
internationally known for its hydrogen leadership, is to develop a
purpose-built, next generation fuel cell bus. The bus features an
upgraded 120-kilowatt fuel cell system from UTC, an advanced lithium-ion
energy storage system, an advanced electric motive drive system from ISE
Corp. that is lighter weight and lower cost, and an advanced New Flyer
bus design using composite materials and modern electronics for weight
reduction. SunLine will operate the bus in the nine cities of the
Coachella Valley in California.

* AC Transit "HyRoad" - Based on considerable experience
operating three advanced designed buses incorporating UTC Power fuel
cell systems, AC Transit in the San Francisco Bay Area, a national
leader in fuel cell bus design and operations, will push the limits of
existing technology in this direct-path project. They will accelerate
testing and identification of the weakest areas of fuel cell and hybrid
systems, root cause analysis, fuel cell technology development, and
component upgrades with more reliable and durable systems.  Data
collected from benchmarking current systems will lead to fuel cell and
component upgrades roughly one year into the project.

* BAE Systems Compound Fuel Cell Hybrid Bus - The goal of this
novel evolutionary path project is to trim capital cost and reduce
operating costs by building on a highly efficient, commercial Orion
hybrid bus design that balances a moderately-sized Hydrogenics fuel cell
(15-25-kilowatt) as an auxiliary power unit (APU), BAE Systems' advanced
HybriDrive(r) Propulsion System, and advanced energy storage.  Called
"compound" because it links fuel cell, conventional engine and battery
energy sources in one system, the bus targets doubling the fuel
efficiency of a diesel bus in an affordable package.  It will operate
with San Francisco's Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) transit
system for up to one year.
* US Hybrid Integrated Auxiliary Module (IAM) and Fuel Cell
Bi-Directional Converter (BDC) - These two component projects from US
Hybrid in Torrance, CA., will develop critical enabling systems for more
reliable and lower-cost fuel cell bus operation.  The Integrated
Auxiliary Module (IAM) project will develop and demonstrate a single,
low-cost, compact unit housing the 200 amp (A), 24 volt (V) DC-DC
converter and dual 10 horsepower (hp) motor drives with CAN interface
for auxiliary power needs aboard a fuel cell or hybrid fuel cell bus.
The Fuel Cell Bi-directional DC-DC Power Converter (BDC) project will
optimize and streamline the complex energy flow between multiple
devices, such as fuel cells, batteries and electric drive system.  By
standardizing the 400A rated bi-directional DC-DC converter module
design, the unit can reduce weight and costs, and increase efficiency of
the fuel cell systems.

"These projects are integral parts of our multi-path roadmap to more
quickly improve hydrogen and fuel cell technologies and move them to the
market," said John Boesel, President and CEO of WestStart-CALSTART.
"They support our overall suite of fuel cell and hydrogen efforts,
including separate projects with a high-lifetime fuel cell system.
Given California's first-mover need for cleaner, lower carbon
transportation, the state is the ideal epicenter for these efforts."

Source: Fuel Cell Today