Municipalities step on the gas (1): H2 buses for public transport in Germany

(Aachen) – The past few weeks have apparently been very inspiring for numerous municipal bus planners. In any case, since the beginning of the year there has been a noticeable accumulation of reports about who is converting their local public transport fleets to hydrogen-powered buses - or at least enriching them in the process. We present some projects in Germany.

Hamburg: 5 buses by the beginning of 2024

Hamburger Hochbahn AG has acquired a contract with the Polish vehicle manufacturer Solaris Bus & Coach sp. z oo ordered five “Urbino Hydrogen” hydrogen buses in the 12-meter version.

According to the company, delivery will take place by the second quarter of 2024. The buses will be powered by energy from a fuel cell with an output of 70 kilowatts. The company also opted for an enclosed cab and a conventional 2-2-2 door layout. Each of the vehicles can carry 70 passengers, 26 of whom are seated.

According to its own information, the Hochbahn had already carried out a tender “some time ago” to procure up to 2025 fuel cell buses by 50. Such models have been “successfully in use” as various prototypes since 2003 and have “always represented an option for solving the existing range problem” with battery-electric buses, according to a blog. There are currently 145 vehicles with batteries in use. The latest solo buses can travel 270 kilometers without recharging, while articulated buses can travel 230 kilometers.

Hydrogen will “undoubtedly become more important, especially in northern Germany with a high potential for renewable energy sources.” The Hochbahn is therefore pursuing this technology as a “strategic option” and will then gain further experience with fuel cell buses in passenger service from 2024. By the end of the decade, all diesel-powered buses would be replaced by ones with zero-emission drives.

Aschaffenburg: 12 hydrogen buses in two sizes

Aschaffenburg Verkehrs GmbH also decided on hydrogen buses from Solaris. The city in Lower Franconia is receiving ten “Urbino 12 Hydrogen” and two “Urbino 18 Hydrogen”, which the company presented last autumn. This is the first order for Solaris for the 18 meter long articulated buses.

The interior has air conditioning, USB charging sockets and an automatic passenger counting system. There is also space for wheelchairs, strollers or bicycles. Conventional exterior mirrors are unnecessary: ​​the passenger compartment, surrounding area and outside area are monitored by cameras. If objects or people appear near the vehicle, a system called “MobileEye Shield” warns the driver, who can react accordingly.

The hydrogen tanks are placed on the roof in the front part of the vehicle. The fuel cell modules of the Urbino 12 Hydrogen have an output of 70 kilowatts, the “Urbino 18 Hydrogen” has a fuel cell output of 100 kilowatts. When there is a high demand for electricity, the fuel cell is supported - depending on the vehicle type - by one or two batteries with a capacity of 30 kilowatt hours each. The vehicles are scheduled to be on Aschaffenburg's roads as early as 2024.

Düsseldorf: 20 buses plus gas station

Stadtwerke Düsseldorf (SWD) and Rheinbahn are purchasing 20 fuel cell buses as part of the conversion of their fleet to climate-friendly drives. The vehicles can travel 310 kilometers on one tank of fuel.

In cooperation with the gas station operator H2 Mobility Deutschland, the municipality is also building an electrolyzer with an output of one megawatt. The system will be installed on the municipal utilities premises and is scheduled to be completed in 2026. It can be expanded up to five megawatts. According to the company, the two tons of hydrogen per day that would then be produced could be used to refuel up to 100 buses every day.

The municipal utilities call the electricity for hydrogen production “green”. In fact, it is produced in waste incineration plants and not from renewable energies. The city derives the high-profile attribute from the fact that 50 percent of the waste is of “biogenic origin”. The initiators then interpret the source of electricity as “renewable energies”.

The Rheinbahn will receive the first ten buses “in the coming weeks,” it says, without giving a specific date. Test operations will begin in the second quarter. These vehicles will be refueled on the Stadtwerke premises in Flingern, where the station is scheduled to go into operation in the middle of next year. Until then, the Rheinbahn buses will take up their fuel in Düsseldorf-Reisholz. The project is being funded with around 1,2 million euros by the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport.

Oldenburg: 4 of 16 buses are already rolling

Oldenburger Verkehr und Wasser GmbH (VWG) claims to be “the first local transport company in Lower Saxony” to use hydrogen buses in regular scheduled services. The first four buses were presented at the beginning of February in the presence of Oldenburg's mayor Jürgen Krogmann, Stefan Dohler (CEO of EWE AG) and Michael Emschermann (Managing Director of VWG). “We are excited to see how the hydrogen buses behave in city traffic and how they perform in operation,” says Emschermann.

A total of 16 of these vehicles were put out to tender together with Bremerhaven Bus and Vestische Straßenbahn GmbH, four of them for use in the VWG area. The Portuguese manufacturer Fabricação de Carroçarias SA (Caetanobus) prevailed with its “H2 City Gold” series, which delivered the means of transport from Porto at the beginning of the year by ferry and then by semi-trailer.

These are low-floor, twelve-meter-long solo vehicles that have 33 seats, 39 standing places and two wheelchair spaces. The fuel cell drive is supplied by Toyota and is borrowed from the “Mirai” car - so the installed technology has been in use and tested for a long time.

The traction batteries, hydrogen tanks and the fuel cell are placed on the roof. The buses are refueled at an H2 Mobility station. A refueling process takes around ten minutes and the vehicles have a range of around 400 kilometers. The individual price is around 610.000 euros, 80 percent of which comes from funds from the European Regional Development Fund and the state of Lower Saxony.

Vestische: 5 buses in the test with mobile filling stations

The North Rhine-Westphalian Vestische Straßenbahnen GmbH operates around 260 buses in the Recklinghausen district, in the city of Bottrop and in the northern part of the city of Gelsenkirchen. In the second half of 2023, the first five fuel cell buses are to be gradually integrated into the bus fleet. The vehicles are then refueled at the depot in Herten.

They are part of a joint project with the Danish Everfuel A/S, which is bringing a mobile hydrogen filling station onto the market called “Everfiller”. The gas station on wheels is particularly suitable for refueling smaller vehicle fleets and should be tested in everyday operation.

The system would also be an option for vehicle operators who do not currently use large amounts of hydrogen, explains Everfuel. Experience has shown that many fleet operators would like to use hydrogen, but there is currently a lack of suitable refueling solutions, especially for beginners. They want to deliver this with the “Everfiller”.

Deutsche Bahn: 60 buses for northern Germany

Caetanobus will put its vehicles on the roads not only in Oldenburg, but also elsewhere in northern Germany. A framework agreement concluded with DB Regio Bus, the bus division of Deutsche Bahn AG, runs until 2026 and provides for the delivery of 60 buses. These vehicles are also a joint production between Caetanobus and Toyota as the supplier of the fuel cell system.

The “H2 City Gold” buses are twelve meters long and have 34 seats and 47 standing places. The passenger compartment offers space for wheelchairs. With one tank of hydrogen, the vehicles can travel between 350 kilometers in winter and 550 kilometers in summer. Numerous electronic safety systems are installed in the buses, which, for example, warn of a possible collision with pedestrians or other road users.

According to its own information, DB Regio Bus is the largest provider in German bus transport with 470 million passengers annually. The company wants to phase out the last diesel bus in 2038. In just seven years, all newly purchased buses would be operated with zero emissions.

The first vehicles are scheduled to drive in Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein at the beginning of 2024: five will be used in the Jever area and two in Rendsburg-Eckernförde. Two previous versions of the buses that have now been ordered are already (as reported) running at the DB subsidiary Autokraft as part of the hydrogen pioneering project “eFarm” in the Nordfriesland district, which was initiated by JP Joule GmbH. You fill up with the green hydrogen produced regionally from wind power by eFarm at filling stations in Husum and Niebüll.

“Hydrogen buses are climate-friendly and have another advantage: they can be filled up faster than the batteries of a purely electric bus are charged,” says Evelyn Pallas, Board Member for Regional Transport DB AG. “With their long range, hydrogen buses can replace existing diesel vehicles particularly well in rural areas.” The order volume is almost 40 million euros.

Photo above
Municipalities are increasingly investing in hydrogen buses for local public transport (Photo: Alsterdorf bus depot in Hamburg. © Hamburger Hochbahn AG

Red.Note: In the second part on the use of H2 buses in municipalities, we will be presenting international projects from Europe, the USA and Asia next week. For example, the megacity of Incheon in Korea wants to put 200 fuel cell vehicles on the streets this year - the entire fleet of 2030 diesel buses is to be replaced by 2.000.