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New Citaro Fuel Cell Bus Debuts in Hamburg; 50% Lower Fuel Consumption
16 November 2009
| New Citaro FuelCELL-Hybrid at Hamburg Harbour. Click to enlarge. |
The new Mercedes-Benz Citaro FuelCELL-Hybrid made its first appearance in its future operating location of Hamburg. Starting next year, 10 of the 30 new fuel cell buses that Daimler Buses is producing for European transport operators are destined for the Hamburg transport authority. Hamburger Hochbahn will also take delivery of 20 Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-CELL cars starting 2010, which are also equipped with a fuel cell drive system. (Earlier post.)
To further cost-reduction through the use of common parts, the new Citaro FuelCELL-Hybrid bus is powered by two fuel cell systems of the same type used in the B-Class F-CELL. Thanks to improved fuel cell components and hybridization with lithium-ion batteries, the Citaro FuelCELL-Hybrid consumes almost 50% less hydrogen compared to the preceding generation. The operating range of the fuel cell bus is around 250 kilometers (155 miles).
The fuel cell drive system is also practically maintenance-free, and has a long operating life.
The Citaro FuelCELL-Hybrid is taking part in large-scale fleet trials which are due to take place in Hamburg and other European cities. This is a follow-up to the European Union’s CUTE and HyFLEET:CUTE projects, which were carried out from 2003 to 2009. In the HyFLEET:CUTE project, a total of 36 Mercedes-Benz Citaro buses equipped with the second-generation fuel cell drive system have performed well for 12 public transport agencies on three continents, among them Hamburger Hochbahn AG.
In more than 140,000 hours of operation, they covered a total of more than 2.2 million generated kilometers (1.4 million miles).
The new Citaro FuelCELL-Hybrid clearly demonstrates that electric mobility is already feasible today also with commercial vehicles. Besides, synergy potentials with our Mercedes-Benz passenger car development and Daimler research can be optimally used in particular with the fuel cell drive system.
—Hartmut Schick, head of Daimler Buses
Daimler’ global initiative “Shaping Future Transportation” consolidates all the activities for sustainable mobility in the commercial vehicles sector at the company. The aim of this initiative is to use clean, efficient drive systems along with alternative fuels to realize zero-emission commercial vehicles. “Shaping Future Transportation” means conserving resources and reducing emissions of all kinds, while ensuring the highest possible level of traffic safety.
Our intensive research and development conducted since 1994 has enabled us to bring the fuel cell to series production maturity. This enables us to entrust two fully practical electric vehicles with battery-electric and fuel cell drive systems to our customers – the smart fortwo electric drive and the B-Class F-CELL. The main objective now is to achieve a competitive cost level in comparison with conventionally powered vehicles and to create a full infrastructure of electric and hydrogen filling stations in cooperation with energy providers and the petroleum industry.
—Prof. Kohler, Vice President e-drive & Future Mobility at Daimler AG
Hamburg. In this large-scale project for the use of fuel cell technology in Hamburg, Daimler is cooperating with the city council as well as with Shell, Total and Vattenfall Europe. The aim is to accelerate the creation of an emission-free vehicle fleet and establish an appropriate infrastructure of hydrogen filling stations. The project is part of the Clean Energy Partnership in Hamburg and Berlin. It is being supported by the federal German government as part of the National Innovation Program for hydrogen and fuel cell technology (NIP).
As part of this cooperation, four public filling stations with hydrogen pumps are to be constructed in Hamburg, enabling fuel cell vehicles to be refuelled within minutes. With a storage pressure of 700 bar, the fuel cell vehicle operating range will exceed 400 kilometers (249 miles). This large operating range will make locally emission-free fuel cell vehicles fully suited to longer-distance operations, Daimler says.
November 16, 2009 in Fuel Cells, Heavy-duty, Hydrogen | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBack (0)
Comments
Posted by: mahonj | November 16, 2009 at 06:57 AM
Bus drivers take lunch breaks but not their vehicles.
Posted by: Mannstein | November 16, 2009 at 07:14 AM
I wonder if they take into account the efficiency loss (about 20%) and CO2 emissions from reforming natural gas to get the hydrogen fuel. I think not....
Posted by: Jim | November 16, 2009 at 07:25 AM
You could create a diesel / natural gas dual fuel hybrid fairly easily. If you could keep the charge topped up with overhead wires, you might not have to refuel all day.
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2009/09/consortium-launches-britains-first-dual-fuel-biomethane-bus-emissions-cut-in-half.html
Posted by: 3PeaceSweet | November 16, 2009 at 07:30 AM
City buses are ideal candidates for full electrification:
1) short well known routes.
2) can take 1++ tonne of batteries and super caps.
3) could get quick recharges at equipped points along routes and at each ends.
4) lower noise, lower maintenance, no C operations
Posted by: HarveyD | November 16, 2009 at 10:40 AM
It's becoming interresting these high powered low cost non-polluting fuelcell.
Im currently shopping for a small home hydrogen producing machine for producing fuel for my dodge neon 2005, fitted with the latest gazeous hydrogen tank, for free non-polluting fuel. I can sell this gas to the neibors too for a free non-pollutinf neiborood, then i will open a hydrogen station to fuel tractor-trailer truck, agricol machineries, airplanes, ships, trains and electrical generation power-plants.
Posted by: a.b | November 16, 2009 at 11:02 AM
You would be surprised how fact fuel cells are pushing into these markets. They have improved alot faster then batteries have and can fill needs a battery simply cant touch.
Posted by: wintermane2000 | November 16, 2009 at 08:36 PM
"The main objective now is to achieve a competitive cost level .. and hydrogen filling stations in cooperation with energy providers and the petroleum industry."
I notice they save the best 'til last.
I still cannot see how FCVs make sense.
But
I still believe there must be some good reasons why so many companies continue to pursue this.
But I am not buying the conspiracy theory – like the whole world is going to sink billions into FCEVs and then, just before we invest trillions into hydrogen distribution infrastructure, BYD (or any number of others) says “Instead of a $25k FCV (plus trillions for Hydrogen distribution infrastructure), how about an RE-BEV for $25k? Charge your battery over night and use 'grid power' for 90% of your travel."
Maybe I have been overlooking the fact that fuel cells have many other (non-auto) uses that require money for development (better durability, lower cost and better tanks/storage) but do not require the trillions for distribution infrastructure.
Or maybe FCEVs really will make sense. ?
Maybe, but how about let's wait as long as we can on the infrastructure spending. See how it goes.
Posted by: ToppaTom | November 17, 2009 at 01:42 AM
All of the above and then some tom.
They have the future costs sussed out fairly well so they know now roughly when they will be able to actualy make a fuel cell car cheaper then a normal gas car.
They also know roughly how big all the compents will be at that time and how long they will last.
And finaly they know h2 will be cheaper then gas.
Alot of fanboys keep thinking its bev vs fuel cell when in reality its fuel cell vs gas/diesel. The fuel cell will simply outclass an ice engine car in every way sometime after 2020.
Posted by: wintermane2000 | November 17, 2009 at 04:10 PM
ToppaTom
(wearing my conspiracy hat)
You can't add road taxes onto an electric bill. Same with a natural gas bill. You CAN add them onto a hydrogen fuel pump though. So that's why the gov't is on-board with Hydrogen.
You don't need fueling stations for electricity, you can do it at home. Same with NG, though perhaps a bit more difficult (compressor needed). So that's why the oil companies are on-board with hydrogen.
Posted by: Jim | November 19, 2009 at 03:35 PM
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I still think they would be better with a methane hybrid bus with some kind of generator fueled by methane (or some HC gas) and a hybrid electric drive.
If the generator works at a constant speed or power, it could be very efficient.
You could also provide plug in capability to charge the batteries fully every night and lunch break (or use the supercapacitor high speed charging system as well).
The trick will be to get the best performance at a reasonable expected production price.