CHENNAI: Will hydrogen-powered buses be introduced by the Metropolitan Transport Corporation? The State government is reviewing a proposal to introduce a pilot project in MTC which will help decarbonise and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to State Transport department official.
The previous government planned to constitute a technical committee to share expertise on deployment of the pilot project from the pre-implementation, implementation, operation and completion stages of the demonstration just before the elections, and it is learnt that the present government is reviewing the proposal.
According to information available with Express, the then secretary C Samayamoorthy has written to the State Transport commissioner, Tangedco chairman, CMDA member secretary, State Pollution Control Board, Greater Chennai Corporation commissioner and other organisations such as Indian Oil Corporation, to depute an expert as a member of the technical committee for the hydrogen mobility project in public transport.
This also comes in the wake of the State Transport department procuring 12,000 diesel buses complying with Bharat Stage VI norms, after signing an agreement with German bank KfW during the previous regime. The State will also introduce 500 electric buses and infrastructure will be ready within three months, a State Transport department official said. Under the FAME-2 scheme, Tamil Nadu was sanctioned 500 more buses. The State government went in for tender, but it did not materialise due to the pandemic.
Sivasubramaniam Jayaraman, manager, transport system, ITDP-India, says the MoHUA guidelines suggest 60 buses for every lakh population. Considering this, Chennai needs an additional 3,100 buses to achieve the minimum service-level benchmark. “With the dawn of cleaner fuel technology, bus fleet augmentation should also target minimising the carbon footprint. The TN Electric Vehicle Policy 2020 says STUs will replace 5 per cent of their buses with electric ones every year (around 1000 EV buses). The government should consider inducting these cleaner vehicle technologies,” he said.
Even the Centre has been advocating the use of cleaner-technology vehicles and use of hydrogen as fuel as it would result in zero vehicular emissions. 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.
Dr Abha Bharti, Chief Scientist and Global Head of Fuel Cells, Capstone Energy, says hydrogen is an alternate source of 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 the Centre for Fuel Cell Technology, International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials, IIT Madras Research Park, says few start-ups in the IIT Park are working on different aspects of fuel cells.
The hydrogen fuel scenario in fuel cell is catching up in India. National Thermal Power Corporation has floated a tender for deploying hydrogen 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 locomotives. 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.
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: Institute for Transportation and Development Policy)