Wuppertal. Since June, WSW mobil GmbH has been using ten hydrogen buses in Wuppertal's local public transport. After the first 100 days, they were “consistently satisfied”: the hydrogen consumption was lower than expected, meaning the range was “significantly higher”. There have been no technical problems since then, according to the WSW. The vehicles are fueled with hydrogen obtained from Wuppertal waste. For this purpose, an electrolyser was installed at the AWG Korzert waste-to-energy plant in the spring.
The buses from the Belgian manufacturer Van Hool have covered 65.000 kilometers since the fleet was put into operation. Each bus can carry 38,5 kilograms of hydrogen in five tanks on the roof. With an average hydrogen consumption of around eight kilograms per 100 kilometers, they have a range of over 400 kilometers. This means that the buses would have consumed around ten percent less in the summer months than would have been expected according to the manufacturer.
With their range, the hydrogen buses are far superior to battery-operated electric buses. Similar to the diesel buses, one refueling per day is sufficient; the refueling process at the AWG waste-to-energy plant takes around ten minutes. “This also means they fit better into operations than battery buses,” explained the company. Around half of the approximately 800 drivers have already been trained on the vehicles. The customer response is positive.
The WSW has now ordered ten more vehicles. The new hydrogen buses come from the Polish manufacturer Solaris and will be delivered to Wuppertal from December.
The hydrogen project “H2W” by WSW and AWG is supported by the EU funding programs JIVE, MEHRLIN and JIVE2, the federal funding program NIP2 and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Photos
Hydrogen bus in Wuppertal: 100 days of emission-free travel / © WSW Wuppertaler Stadtwerke GmbH
