Press Release

P.E.I.'s hydrogen buses a hit

CHARLOTTETOWN —Whilethereare still a few bugs to be worked out, Mark Victor said two hydrogen-fuelled tran­sit buses are performing well in the Is­land capital.

The two buses were purchased last December with funding help from Nat­ural Resources Canada. They are among 10 such vehicles in operation across the country — all of them feed­ing data daily on their operation back to researchers at Ford of Canada and Air Liquide — the Quebec company supply­ing the hydrogen.

Mr. Victor, who is special projects co­ordinator with the P.E.I. Energy Corpo­ration, said the buses fit in well with an overall provincial policy to develop hy­drogen as a transportation fuel.


He said one of the buses is used on the morning run in the downtown area and is then taken to the government garage for refuelling. The other bus takes over in the afternoon.

He said hydrogen is a clean-burning fuel, adding it would take 300 hydrogen buses to put the same exhaust into the air as one bus burning conventional fuel.

It is basically water that comes out of the exhaust of a hydrogen bus, Mr. Vic­tor said.

The trial will run until early 2010. Mr. Victor said the province's long-term plan is to have a hydrogen-fuelled bus offering public transit across the prov­ince.

The energy corporation, together with the Canadian Wind Energy Insti­tute, is currently setting up a generator to manufacture hydrogen from wind power at North Cape on the Island�fs western tip.

The plan is to use the hydrogen to power all of the buildings at the insti­tute when the wind is not blowing. He said the hydrogen could also be used for fuel, but it would have to be further pressurized. Mr. Victor explained the hydrogen has to be pressurized at about 500 pounds per square inch for electrical generation. By contrast, hydrogen used for transportation would need to be compressed to at least 2,500 pounds per square inch, and probably more like 5,000 pounds per square inch.

'The reason you need the high com­pression is to get more distance,' he said. 'At 500 pounds per square inch, you would need to haul a fuelling tank along with you and, of course, that is not practical.'

Mr. Victor said the buses on the Char­lottetown route have more comfortable seating than the conventional buses, which has proven to be a hit with pas­sengers. He added they also run quieter than gas or diesel vehicles.

He added it took a little while for the drivers to get used to the idea but it is working out really well now.'

The special projects co-ordinator said police, fire and ambulance oper­ators in Charlottetown have been trained in how to approach these vehi­cles should they be involved in an acci­dent. He said it has also been a learning curve for service personnel at the local Ford dealership who are providing maintenance to the vehicles.

'This project will help everybody be­come more familiar with hydrogen ­fuelled vehicles,' Mr. Victor said.

He added most major automobile manufacturers are now working on hy­drogen- powered vehicles and �gI would expect their use to escalate substantial­ly over the next few years.'