Ricardo Repowers Double Decker Diesel Bus With Hydrogen Fuel Cells
The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from Ricardo.
Ricardo, a global strategic, environmental, and engineering consulting company, in partnership with Stagecoach North East, has repowered a diesel, double decker bus with a hydrogen fuel cell propulsion system. Delivering zero tailpipe emissions, Ricardo is now seeking to secure customers to invest in the production of a fleet of passenger vehicles fit for the future of sustainable shared mobility.
The project, part funded by the Department of Transport, through its Hydrogen Transport Hub Demonstration competition, saw Ricardo, working with Stagecoach North East to retro-fitted hydrogen fuel cell technology into an existing double decker bus. It created a zero emissions demonstrator that is now undergoing a ten-week test and demonstration programme around the Tees Valley and Brighton and Hove. Feedback and data from the trials will support the team to explore future market opportunities and applications with bus operators and other partners across the UK and beyond.
Given that there are around 38,000 existing buses in the UK, many of which still have a few years of life left, this surely must be an affordable way of creating more zero-carbon hydrogen buses.
It appears that Ricardo are aiming to have an initial batch of 150 buses in service from late 2024.
Ricardo To Engineer Zero Emission Buses For UK’s First Hydrogen Transport Hub
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article from Ricardo.
This is the first paragraph.
As part of its mission to support the decarbonisation of the global transport and energy sectors Ricardo, a world-class environmental, engineering and strategic consulting company, has announced that it has received Government funding to create a retrofit hydrogen fuel cell bus demonstrator for the UK’s first hydrogen transport hub in the north-east of England.
The market for refitting buses with hydrogen power is large, as this sentence from the press release shows.
There are 38,000 buses in service in the UK: 98% are diesel powered; and 50% are less than eight years old.
And that’s just the UK!
The last paragraph sums up Ricardo’s ambitions.
Ricardo will develop a scalable, modular solution, enabling it to be installed, with minimal adaption, to multiple single and double decker platforms. The modular concept may also be saleable as a ‘new fuel cell’ module to coach builders across the European Union enabling them to develop new fuel cell
buses by taking a rolling chassis and applying their coach build body alongside the fuel cell module solution.
Never underestimate Ricardo!
The Anonymous Widower 