{"id":87131,"date":"2022-12-01T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-01T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/engouement-pour-les-bus-a-hydrogene\/"},"modified":"2024-10-31T14:44:36","modified_gmt":"2024-10-31T13:44:36","slug":"engouement-pour-les-bus-a-hydrogene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/engouement-pour-les-bus-a-hydrogene\/","title":{"rendered":"The hydrogen bus craze"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Hydrogen-powered buses are generally hybrid electric buses which, depending on the size of the battery, use a hydrogen-powered fuel cell, either to extend the battery range or as the main means of generating electricity.[1]<\/a><\/sup>. It uses the (smaller) battery only to store the electricity produced by the cell, or even to provide additional energy during acceleration peaks. The first experiments with hydrogen-powered buses occurred more than 30 years: between 1984 and 1988, 10 Mercedes-Benz buses were used for medical transport in Berlin<\/a>.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Hydrogen fuel cell buses, mainly city buses, have been tested in many European cities since 2005, with the help of European funding. In France, since 2011, 42 hydrogen projects have received funding<\/a> under the Future Investment Programmes (FIA) of the French Agency for Ecological Transition (ADEME). Sixteen of these involved hydrogen mobility projects, including the Safra H2<\/sub> project, which is receiving \u20ac4.8 million for the development and marketing of coaches and buses by the French manufacturer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They went on sale in 2014-2015. By 2020, almost 400 fuel cell buses<\/a> had been used in 30 cities in 10 European countries. Around 330 buses were still in operation in June 2021 as part of the European JIVE<\/a> (Joint Initiative for hydrogen Vehicles across Europe) and 3Emotion<\/a> (Environmentally friendly Efficient Electric Motion) programmes.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\n Kilometres driven by buses in the 3Emotion project, as at 30 June 2021, since the start of the operation (in km)\n <\/p>\n <\/div>\n

\n \"https:\/\/fuelcellbuses.eu\/sites\/default\/files\/Perfromance%20data%201%20%28june%202021%29.JPG\"\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Source: <\/em>3Emotion brochure. URL: https:\/\/3emotion.eu\/sites\/default\/files\/3Emotion_brochure-A4_finaal.pdf<\/a> . Accessed 30 November 2022.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n\n\n\n

The advantage of using a hydrogen bus rather than a purely electric solution is its range, which averages 350 km (but can be as much as 450 km), and the fact that it takes a quarter of an hour to recharge with fuel, whereas a battery-powered electric bus has a range closer to 150-200 km, which decreases as the batteries wear out and auxiliary on-board services, such as heating, are used. Fuel cell buses can be used to manage bus services in the same way as diesel buses, avoiding the longer recharging times required for electric buses at the end of the line.[2]<\/a><\/sup> Like electric buses, they emit no combustion particles. Their carbon footprint depends on how the hydrogen is produced.[3]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In France, Lens, Pau and Versailles were pioneers<\/a>, and today seven local authorities are testing the hydrogen option with 31 buses. According to one industry figure<\/a>, more than 880 vehicles are planned for 2026-2030 within 52 networks, not necessarily in the biggest cities. With a national market of 1,800 buses a year, hydrogen seems to be a popular vector for greening urban transport, alongside ethanol and electric power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Admittedly, hydrogen-powered buses are much more expensive: \u20ac150,000 which is more than a 100% electric bus, and twice as much as a diesel bus. But subsidies from the French Agency for Ecological Transition (ADEME) and the European Union cover 70% of the extra cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it\u2019s not enough to simply change the buses, we also need to create a hydrogen supply chain, which should be (at least partly) local to ensure that the hydrogen is green, i.e.<\/em> produced from renewable energy sources, usually by electrolysis of water. In Italy, three hydrogen-powered buses intended to replace part of San Remo\u2019s trolley bus fleet have been idle since 2020. The dedicated hydrogen refuelling station is too expensive to supply,<\/a> while the plan to set up a local hydrogen production unit has been abandoned by lack of funding. The Montpellier metropolitan authority has therefore backed down, cancelling its order for 51 hydrogen buses and choosing instead the 100% electric solution, which it estimates will cost six times less to run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pau, which is continuing to invest, going from 7 to 30 new buses ordered, is using hydroelectricity from the dams in the Pyrenees to produce hydrogen. Dijon, which has 27 buses planned for 2024, plans to produce hydrogen<\/a> using electricity generated by a 16-hectare photovoltaic farm and, for the most part, electricity generated by the incineration of household waste. The ways in which local authorities have come up with to produce the electricity needed to make green hydrogen often include waste incineration (Cr\u00e9teil), photovoltaic solar power (Al\u00e8s<\/a>), and even wind turbines in western<\/a> France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If hydrogen made it possible to store intermittent electricity better than batteries, or to make better use of this electricity than its possible contribution to the electricity grid, it would then become likely that this vector would complement electricity to decarbonise industry and heavy transport. However, according to a study by Carbone4<\/a>, for freight transport, i.e.<\/em> lorries, a battery-powered vehicle is two to three times more efficient than a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle over the entire chain (from the production of electrical energy to motive power), taking into account the electrical losses involved in producing \u2018green\u2019 hydrogen by electrolysis and converting it back into electricity via the fuel cell. In all cases, the carbon footprint depends on how the electricity is produced, which varies from one geographical area to another. By 2030, electric vehicles will outperform hydrogen fuel cells for heavy transport, both in terms of cost, energy and carbon footprint, but will be penalised by the constraints of range and recharging time.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\n Carbon footprint of a road tractor purchased in 2030, by engine and geography (in grams of CO2 equivalent per km)\n <\/p>\n <\/div>\n

\n \"\"\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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N.B.: <\/em>this graph relates to road tractors, but the lessons can be transposed to smaller trucks.
\nSource: <\/em>Carbone4 study<\/a>, p. 37.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n\n\n\n

As far as hydrogen storage is concerned, the good news could come from Australian scientists<\/a> who have developed a technique for adsorbing hydrogen onto boron nitride powder. The storage is stable at ambient temperature, and all that\u2019s needed is heat to release the gas. The process is said to be safer and less energy-intensive than storing hydrogen under high pressure (and even more so in liquid form, which requires a temperature of -253\u00b0C).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is perhaps the local production of hydrogen that could get the sector off the ground, if this sector makes it possible to store renewable electricity that would otherwise be lost because it was not used at the time it was produced. On this point, the 2020 National Hydrogen Strategy reinforces the rationale of supporting the deployment of the hydrogen industry in France, by supporting local ecosystems. Calls for projects led by ADEME aim to support the emergence of hydrogen production and distribution infrastructures in a region, based on local industrial demand and heavy vehicle mobility. These projects, initiated by local authorities, are the project winners.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\n Ecosystem projects supported by ADEME to date\n <\/p>\n <\/div>\n

\n \"Une\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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M\u20ac = millions of euros; MWelec = megawatts of electricity; tH2<\/sub> = tonnes of hydrogen.
\nSource: <\/em>Marchal<\/span> David and Bodineau<\/span> Luc, \u201cAccompagner le d\u00e9ploiement de la fili\u00e8re hydrog\u00e8ne fran\u00e7aise op\u00e9r\u00e9 \u00e0 l\u2019initiative des \u00e9cosyst\u00e8mes territoriaux<\/a>\u201d, R\u00e9alit\u00e9s industrielles<\/em>, November 2022, p. 44.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n\n\n\n

These ecosystems therefore provide an initial area for experimentation. In its Transition(s) 2050<\/a> forecasting exercise, the ADEME forecast a five-fold increase in hydrogen consumption in the \u2018Territorial Cooperations\u2019 and \u2018Green Growth\u2019 carbon neutrality scenarios, of which almost a third could involve the direct use of hydrogen or derived fuels in transport.[4]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For local authorities, these projects are part of strategies aimed at achieving carbon neutrality and developing local autonomy by setting up a local energy supply chain. For local and regional authorities, the introduction of a hydrogen fleet may be a more explicit way of meeting these objectives, compared with electric solutions in which the origin of the electrons on the grid appears more abstract to the audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

——————–
N.B.:<\/em> this article has been translated from French by DeepL, and revised by the author and Futuribles.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

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  1. \n

    It is also possible to power an internal combustion engine directly with hydrogen, but the efficiency of an internal combustion engine is lower than that of an electric motor, including one powered by a fuel cell. \u2191<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    However, for an urban bus service with a daily distance of 100 km, it can be estimated that the recharging constraints posed by electric batteries remain moderate. \u2191<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  3. \n

    Grey hydrogen is made from natural gas and therefore emits CO2<\/sub>, unless a carbon capture technology is used (blue hydrogen). Green hydrogen is produced by electrolysis of water, with the electricity generated by renewable energies. Another form of low-carbon hydrogen is that produced by electrolysis using nuclear electricity (known as pink hydrogen). See our analysis of 13 April 2021 on this subject<\/a>. \u2191<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  4. \n

    Marchal<\/span> David and Bodineau<\/span> Luc, \u201cAccompagner le d\u00e9ploiement de la fili\u00e8re hydrog\u00e8ne fran\u00e7aise op\u00e9r\u00e9 \u00e0 l\u2019initiative des \u00e9cosyst\u00e8mes territoriaux<\/a>\u201d, R\u00e9alit\u00e9s industrielles<\/em>, November 2022, p. 41-46. \u2191<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Hydrogen-powered buses are generally hybrid electric buses which, depending on the size of the battery, use a hydrogen-powered fuel cell, either to extend the battery range or as the main means of generating electricity.[1]. It uses the (smaller) battery only to store the electricity produced by the cell, or even to provide additional energy during … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":53269,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"both","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":301,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[140],"tags":[202,212],"keyword":[1629,914],"class_list":["post-87131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newswatch","tag-environnement-en","tag-societe-en","keyword-hydrogene-en","keyword-transport-routier-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87131"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99220,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87131\/revisions\/99220"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87131"},{"taxonomy":"keyword","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyword?post=87131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}