London signs hydrogen bus deal
Air Products has signed a deal with Transport for London to provide it with hydrogen technology for a fleet of buses.
The company will supply the hydrogen fuel and a dedicated fuelling station for 10 buses in London’s transport system.
Mike Weston. operations director for London Buses at Transport for London, said: “We believe hydrogen has an important role to play in helping reduce the impact of public transport on the environment.
“These buses produce substantially fewer emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants than diesel buses — in the case of fuel cell buses, they produce no pollution at all at the point of use, thus helping to clean up the Capital’s air.”
It is thought the buses will be on London roads by 2010.
Air Products is the world’s largest supplier of merchant hydrogen, operating over 60 gaseous and liquid hydrogen production plants.
The deal is worth £3.4 million, with extra being paid for the fuel.
A spokesperson for the ETA said: “We welcome this clean technology, but there have been three fuel cell buses operating in London since 2005, so it’s disappointing that three years later there are only a further ten being added – that’s out of a London bus fleet of 8,000 vehicles.”
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