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® 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.”
About WestStart-CALSTART
WestStart-CALSTART is North America’s leading advanced transportation technologies consortium. It is a participant-supported, non-profit organization of approximately 155 firms and organizations worldwide, dedicated to expanding and supporting a high-tech transportation industry that cleans the air, creates jobs, reduces global warming emissions and improves energy efficiency. WestStart serves as a strategic broker to spur advanced transportation technologies, systems and the companies that make them. Its California operating division does business as CALSTART. Visit www.weststart.org for more information.