The Fuel Cell Bus Club comprised the participants of the projects

CUTE Cuteness is a subjective term describing a type of attractiveness commonly associated with youth and appearance, as well as a scientific concept and analytical model in ethology, first introduced by Konrad Lorenz. Lorenz proposed the concept ...

(2001-2006), ECTOS (2001-2005) and

STEP Step(s) or STEP may refer to: Common meanings * Stairs#Step, Steps, making a staircase * Walking * Dance move * Military step, or march ** Marching Arts Films and television * Steps (TV series), ''Steps'' (TV series), Hong Kong * Step (film), ' ...

(2001-2005) which were pioneering demonstration projects for fuel cell bus fleets in Europe and Australia. The projects have been successfully completed. There were three buses in each of the 11 cities in the trial. The buses were a

Mercedes-Benz Citaro The Mercedes-Benz Citaro is a single-decker, rigid or articulated bus manufactured by Mercedes-Benz/EvoBus. Introduced in 1997, the Citaro is available in a range of configurations, and is in widespread use throughout Europe and parts of Asia ...

and used

hydrogen Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, an ...

fuel cells from

Ballard Power Systems Ballard Power Systems Inc. is a developer and manufacturer of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell products for markets such as heavy-duty motive (consisting of bus and tram applications), portable power, material handling as well as engine ...

. At the time they claimed to be the largest fleet of

fuel cell A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most batteries in requ ...

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

es in the world. The buses were estimated to cost

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

1.2

million One million (1,000,000), or one thousand thousand, is the natural number following 999,999 and preceding 1,000,001. The word is derived from the early Italian ''millione'' (''milione'' in modern Italian), from ''mille'', "thousand", plus the au ...

each and have a range of and carry around 70 passengers.

Projects

CUTE

CUTE stands for ''Clean Urban Transport for Europe''. This

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

initiative was responsible for the fuel cell buses in all but two of the cities:

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

, and

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

. It was supported by a consortium of transportation operators, hydrogen infrastructure and fuel cell developers, universities and city authorities. The project ran from 2001-2006. The project was "deemed a success."

ECTOS

ECTOS stands for ''Ecological City Transport System''. Icelandic New Energy was responsible for this project, the aim of which was to demonstrate "state-of-the-art" hydrogen

technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, ...

by running part of the

public transport Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...

system with fuel cell buses in the city

Reykjavík Reykjavík ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay. Its latitude is 64°08' N, making it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. With a po ...

, the capital of

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

. Hydrogen was produced from domestic geothermal and hydro-powered

energy In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of heat a ...

sources by

electrolysis In chemistry and manufacturing, electrolysis is a technique that uses direct electric current (DC) to drive an otherwise non-spontaneous chemical reaction. Electrolysis is commercially important as a stage in the separation of elements from n ...

. The project ran from 2001-2005.

STEP

STEP stands for ''Sustainable Transport Energy for Perth''."TOWARDS TOMORROW." ''Sun-Herald'' ydney, Australia9 Nov. 2003: 33. Infotrac Newsstand. Web. 19 Nov. 2013. This initiative of the Government of Western Australia's

Department for Planning and Infrastructure The Department for Planning and Infrastructure was a department of the Government of Western Australia that was responsible for implementing the state's planning, infrastructure and transport policies during the Gallop and Carpenter governments. I ...

(DPI), was the responsibility of the public transport organisation

Transperth Transperth is the brand name of the public transport system serving the city and suburban areas of Perth, the state capital of Western Australia. It is managed by the Public Transport Authority (PTA), a state government organisation. Train op ...

, though it was run by contracted operator

Path Transit Path Transit is an Australian bus company operating Transperth services under contract to the Public Transport Authority. It is a subsidiary of Keolis Downer. History On 29 September 1996, Path Transit commenced operating services in the Marm ...

. They were operated in the city

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

, the capital of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. These three buses are called "EcoBuses". The project ran from 2001-2005, with the first buses in service in September 2004. The Perth trial received A$2.5 million funding from the

Department of the Environment and Heritage The Department of the Environment and Heritage was an Australian government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. ...

and the

Australian Greenhouse Office The Australian Greenhouse Office (AGO) was formed in 1998 within the Government of Australia as a stand-alone agency within the environment portfolio to provide a whole of government approach to greenhouse matters. It was the world's first governm ...

. It was endorsed by the

United Nations Environment Programme The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the United Nations Conference on th ...

and the

United Nations Industrial Development Organization The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) (French: Organisation des Nations unies pour le développement industriel; French/Spanish acronym: ONUDI) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that assists countries in e ...

. BP produced the hydrogen as a by-product at its Kwinana

oil refinery An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refined into useful products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt base, fuel oils, heating oil, kerosene, lique ...

( south of Perth). The hydrogen was then transported by road in specially designed road tankers to a bus depot in the northern suburbs of Perth. Perth's buses achieved greater reliability and better fuel economy than in any other city in the trial. By June 2005, the Perth buses had covered more than and completed almost 3,000 operational hours, with almost 60,000 passengers having used the service. * In 2004, STEP received a Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport Outstanding Achievement award. * In 2005, it was presented with a Banksia award in the "Government Leading by Example for a Sustainable Future" category.

Partners

The buses were manufactured by

DaimlerChrysler The Mercedes-Benz Group AG (previously named Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler and Daimler) is a German multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is one of the world's leading car manufacture ...

, the manufacturer of Mercedes-Benz vehicles, and use

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gen ...

s manufactured by XCELLSIS Fuel Cell Engines, now a division of

, developed as an alliance of Ballard, DaimlerChrysler, and

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

. A number of the cities are receiving their hydrogen from BP. The trial is being independently evaluated, mostly by Murdoch University.

References

External links

Official website of the Fuel Cell Bus Club
(also the official website of CUTE) (archived from th
original

Official website of Icelandic New Energy
(includes details of ECTOS)
Official EcoBus website
(archived from th
original

{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090308114643/http://www.hydrogen-motors.com/buses.html , date=2009-03-08 Green vehicles Fuel cell buses