Launch of 3Emotion’s first 2 Fuel Cell Electric Buses (hydrogen buses) at public transport operator RET in Rotterdam

It is now widely acknowledged that the future of public transport buses will have to be zeroemission. Fuel cell electric buses (FCEB’s - also called hydrogen buses) are one of the technologies that meet that requirement.

Friday, June 30, the first fuel cell electric buses of the 3Emotion project, funded by the FCHJU, are being launched at public transport operator RET in Rotterdam.

‘Today, a hydrogen bus drove for the first time through Rotterdam. We all want clean air in the city. At the moment we are in a transit phase to completely clean buses and we have reached a momentum: the introduction of the hydrogen bus.’ said Maurice Unck, director of RET. ‘The hydrogen bus is the first bus in the RET fleet which is 100% emission-free. Two of the buses will drive in the city after summer.’

The buses will fuel at the existing refuelling station of Air Liquide in Rotterdam, of which the storage capacity is expanded for this purpose, also within the 3Emotion project.

‘The pilot with the two hydrogen buses is an important preparatory step towards a 100% emission-free bus fleet. ‘Lennart Harpe, Portfolio Manager Public Transport Development of the Metropolitan Region of Rotterdam The Hague (MRDH) said: ‘A reachable, viable and sustainable region, that's what we want. As a commissioner for the public transport in the region, we are of course in favor of making bus transport more sustainable. The aim is therefore that all public buses will run zero-emission from 2025 onwards.’

About FCEB’s

FCEB’s are a type of electric buses, using fuel cells and batteries to power the electric motor. Instead of storing all energy in large and heavy batteries, fuel cells use hydrogen and oxygen to generate electricity, producing only heat and water as a by-product. This makes that no harmfull emissions are produced, significantly less noise is present and the buses have the same flexibility as diesel buses.

At this moment about 70 buses are already in operation in Europe, with more than 150 buses to be deployed shortly. They drove more than 8 500 000 km, corresponding to a total reduction of more than 9000 kg of CO2 and 3 400 000 litres of Diesel.

About 3Emotion

3Emotion is the 4th large scale bus project, co-financed by the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking and aims to bridge the gap between fuel cell bus demonstration and larger scale deployment.

The project contains the deployment of 21 new and the further use of 8 existing fuel cell buses with the required refuelling infrastructure. These buses will be deployed in 6 sites and operated by different public transport operators located all over Europe: apart from Rotterdam (NL), the buses will be demonstrated in London(UK), Versailles (FR), Aalborg (DK), Pau (FR) and Rome (IT).

About FCH-JU

The Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU) is a public-private partnership supporting research, technological development and demonstration (RTD) activities in fuel cell and hydrogen energy technologies in Europe. Its aim is to accelerate the market introduction of these technologies, realising their potential as an instrument in achieving a carbon-lean energy system.

The fifth FCH-JU busproject ‘Jive’ seeks to deploy 139 new zero emission fuel cell buses and associated refuelling infrastructure across the UK, Germany, Italy, Latvia and Denmark in the next 6 years.

For more info: please contact Flip Bamelis - projectcoordinator 3Emotion - flip.bamelis@vanhool.be, +32 476 55 55 09