C Shivakumar @CHENNAI:
Will Hydrogen powered buses be introduced in Metropolitan Transport Corporation? The state government is reviewing a proposal for introducing a pilot project in MTC which will help decarbonise and reduce green house gas emission, according to state transport department official.
While the previous government has planned to constitute a technical committee to give expertise for deployment of the pilot project from the pre-implementation, implementation, operation and completion stage of the demonstration just before elections, it is learnt the present government is reviewing the proposal.
According to information available with Express, then secretary C Samayamoorthy has written to state transport commissioner, Tangedco chairman, CMDA member Secretary, state pollution control board, Greater Chennai Commissioner and other organisations like Indian Oil Corporation to depute an expert as a member of technical committee for Hydrogen Mobility project in public transport.
This also comes in the wake of the state transport department procuring 12,000 diesel buses complying to Bharat Stage VI norms after signing an agreement with German bank KfW during the previous regime. The state will also be introducing 500 electric buses and infrastructure will be ready in the next three months, a state transport department official said. It is also under FAME-2 scheme, tn was sanctioned 500 more buses. The state government went for tender. But due to Covid-19, it did not happen.
Sivasubramaniam Jayaraman, manager -Transport system , ITDP –India says that the guideline by MoHUA suggests 60 buses for every lakh population. Considering this, Chennai needs an additional 3100 buses to achieve the minimum service level benchmark.
“With the dawn of cleaner fuel technology, bus fleet augmentation should also target minimizing the carbon footprint. As per TN Electric Vehicle policy 2020 mentions STU’s will replace 5pc of their buses to electric every year (around 1000 EV buses). Government should consider inducting these cleaner vehicle technologies and gradually aim to phase out the diesel buses,” he says.
Even the Centre has been advocating the use cleaner technology vehicles and use of hydrogen as fuel as it would result in zero vehicular emissions. The Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget this year announced the National Hydrogen Mission, which includes creating infrastructure to tap hydrogen in niche applications including the transport sector. And goal oriented research and development facilitative policy.
Dr Abha Bharti, Chief Scientist and Global Head of Fuel Cells, Capstone Energy says Hydrogen is the alternate energy to reduce emissions. The fuel cell doesn’t have any emission and can compete with conventional diesel and petrol fuel.
Bharti, who did her post doctoral fellowship with Centre for Fuel Cell Technology, International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials, IIT Madras Research Park says that few start-ups in IIT Park are working on different aspects of fuel cells.
Interestingly, the Hydrogen fuel scenario in fuel cell is catching up in India. National Thermal Power Corporation has floated a tender for deploying hydrogen fuel cell buses in Delhi and Leh. Similarly, Tata has bagged an order for 15 hydrogen-based fuel cell buses from the Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL). Even car makers like Nissan, BMW, Hyundai are tapping hydrogen fuel.
Bharti says even the Indian Railways are working on incorporation of fuel cell technology in locomotive. But how does hydrogen replace the fuel? Bharti says a fuel cell is a device that generates electrical power through a chemical reaction by converting a fuel (hydrogen) into electricity. Hydrogen has a high energy density as compared to other fuels and produces more energy in lesser weight due to which it can prove to be a viable option for heavy vehicles covering long routes in future.
The refueling time is similar to vehicles running on conventional also less fuels and significantly lower as compared to charging an electric vehicle.
However, to make it a success, there are challenges. The fuel cell buses are expensive to manufacture due to the high cost of catalysts (platinum).The reliability is compromised due to lack of infrastructure to support the production and distribution of hydrogen.
A lot of the currently available fuel cell technology is in the prototype stage and not yet validated. Hydrogen is expensive to produce and not widely available in India, according to experts.
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Factfile:
Cost of fuel
Hydrogen fuel cell bus cost per km (CPK): Rs 18.2
Battery electric buses (CPK): Rs 13.8
CNG fuel (CPK): Rs 21.9
Diesel buses: Rs 29.6
Approximate range:
Hydrogen fuel cell bus: 434km with 34.5kg of hydrogen
Battery electric buses: 230km with 300kwh battery
CNG fuel: 300 to 500km with 100kg CNG
Diesel buses: 750km with 300litre diesel
(Source: ITDP)
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