‘Made in India’ hydrogen fuel cell bus was inaugurated in Pune
Union Minister of State for Science and Technology (Independent Charge) Dr Jatinder Singh on Sunday (August 21) launched India’s first truly indigenously developed hydrogen fuel cell bus on. Developed by KPIT-CSIR in Pune, the fuel cell uses hydrogen and air to generate electricity to run the bus, and the only exhaust from the bus is water. For comparison, a diesel bus plying on long-distance routes typically emits 100 tons of CO2 annually, and there are more than one million such buses in India
Also, the high efficiency of fuel cell vehicles and the high energy density of hydrogen ensures that the operating cost per kilometre for fuel cell trucks and buses is lower than that of diesel vehicles. “Green hydrogen is an excellent clean energy vector that enables deep decarbonisation of hard-to-reduce emissions from the refining industry, fertilizer industry, steel industry, cement industry and heavy commercial transport sector,” the Union Minister said. said
“India can pole-vault from being a net importer of fossil energy to a net exporter of clean hydrogen energy,” he added. About 12-14 percent of CO2 and particulate emissions come from diesel-powered heavy commercial vehicles, which are decentralized emissions and therefore difficult to capture, Dr Jatinder Singh said. Hydrogen-fueled vehicles provide the best means to eliminate road emissions from this sector, the minister said.
He said that India’s objective is to increase inland waterways for the movement of goods and passengers. The Minister appreciated the joint development efforts of KPIT and CSIR-NCL and said that the technological capability of Indian scientists and engineers is not less than the best in the world and at very low costs.
