In the dark of SW Quad garage, pollution-free engines of future
A first glance and it looks like any other bus. The interiors, aside from a slight seat rearrangement, are identical, and its outward appearance would blend in with any D.C. street. Turn on the fuel cell bus, however, and all is quiet, with no smell of exhaust.
In the spring of 2006, Georgetown University initiated its third generation of methanol fuel cell buses.
photo by Kate Mays
The Generation III buses will take advantage of recent advancements made by fuel cell research in the automotive industry. In a methanol fuel cell, methanol and water make a hydrogen-rich gas, which reacts with oxygen to produce electricity.
Donald Mase, the technical director of Advanced Vehicle Development, explained that the new bus’s fuel cell system will essentially combine two smaller, automobile-sized cells together to provide the energy needed to power a bus. Charlie Pritzlaff, program manager of AVP, said that the Generation III buses should be ready for testing in 2010.
Georgetown has had a hand in advancing the research of fuel cell engines for buses Since 1983 . Following the conclusion of a study that determined that transit buses could utilize fuel cell power, the Federal Transit Authority awarded Georgetown a grant to build its first generation of methanol fuel cell buses.
About 90 percent of Georgetown’s funding comes from grants awarded by the FTA. Pritzlaff described the arrangement as a “team of government and industry [working] to bring [fuel cell] technology along … to see if [fuel cell buses] can be commercialized.”
The success of the three Generation I buses, which are still operating, prompted the FTA in 1993 to fund a second generation of fuel cell buses. The Generation II buses lengthened to 40 feet, while boasting almost twice the mileage, 350 miles, and passenger capacity, 40 people, than that of the Generation I buses.
The goal of the Generation I buses was “to build fuel cells and put them in buses,” Pritzlaff said Monday, as he sat in his office four floors below Kennedy Hall. Behind his desk is a window that spans the back wall of his office, overlooking the dark garage full of buses below.
Currently, the future of fuel cell buses lies in the hands of research programs like Georgetown’s, because bus companies and transit agencies lack the resources to explore it on their own ,Pritzlaff said. The practicability of fuel cell buses must be demonstrated many times over before companies will buy Pritzlaff said. Metro in D.C. just bought their first batch of 50 hybrid buses this past spring.
Though optimistic, Pritzlaff conceded that it is “way too soon to tell” whether there will be another generation of buses past the Generation III’s. “Part of our plan with the Generation III is to transition from the university setting to a commercial setting,” Pritzlaff said.
The first phase of the project is already underway; a few months ago Georgetown negotiated contracts with three companies, two in Germany and one in California. The first phase, which should be completed in spring 2008, aims to produce a methanol fuel cell system that will be used in the Generation III buses.
While there are tremendous benefits in the fuel cell engine’s efficiency, clean exhaust and quietness, Pritzlaff warns that there are still obstacles to overcome before fuel cell engines CAN BE considered viable for public transportation.
Durability is a problem. The Generation II fuel cells will last 1,500-2,000 hours. In order for transit agencies to consider switching over to fuel cell buses, the fuel cells would need to have a lifetime of 25,000 hours, according to PriTzlaff and Mase.
Cost is also a problem. Diesel engine buses cost from $350,000-400,000, compared to the current $3.1 million price tag of a fuel cell bus. Pritzlaff said that he can see the production cost dropping to $2 million for the next generation of buses.
