Hardeep Puri launches hydrogen fuel cell powered bus

Hydrogen is deemed as the fuel for the future with immense potential in helping India meet its decarbonization targets and its global demand for hydrogen is expected to increase by four to seven times to 500-800 million tonnes by 2050, Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri. The domestic demand is expected to increase by four times, from the current 6 million tonnes at present to 25-28 MT by 2050, he added, informing that PSUs under the ministry shall be able to produce around 1 MMTPA of green hydrogen by 2030.

Puri made the remarks while flagging off the first Green Hydrogen fuel cell bus in the national capital. It is being planned to operate an additional 15 fuel cell buses in the NCR region very shortly, he informed. "This green hydrogen-powered bus is going to transform the face of city transport in the country. I shall be closely monitoring the project and wish you all the very best for successfully executing this project of national importance," he said.

Puri said that the ministry has taken pioneering initiatives in the sphere of green hydrogen and we are accelerating our efforts to produce and utilise green hydrogen in the refineries. Further, projects pertaining to hydrogen blending in natural gas pipelines, localization of electrolyzer-based technologies, and promotion of bio-pathways for green hydrogen production are being pursued aggressively, Puri informed. Explaining the mechanism of the bus, he said that the fuel cell utilizes hydrogen and air to generate electricity to power the bus and the only effluent from the bus is water, therefore making it possibly the most environmentally friendly mode of transportation as compared to conventional buses that run on diesel and petrol.

The fuel cells are highly efficient as compared to IC engines, the Minister informed further. The electrical efficiency of fuel cells is 55-60 percent as compared to thermal efficiency of 25 percent for conventional IC engines. These buses will have a high fuel economy of 12 km/kg of hydrogen as compared to 2.5-3 km/liter of diesel buses, Puri said. Additionally, the hydrogen fuel-powered vehicle can be refilled in a few minutes, nearly as fast as fossil fuel can fill an internal combustion engine.