Now, ISRO scientists develop hydrogen fuel cells to power bus

Bangalore, Nov 17 (PTI) India's space scientists have
developed hydrogen fuel cells to power an automobile bus by
leveraging their know-how of the homegrown cryogenic
technology for rockets.

The two-year effort has yielded positive results and the
scientists are now readying for the fuel cells to be fitted
into a bus.

"That's not exactly the cryogenic technology... (It's)
liquid hydrogen handling and that's where we have some
expertise. So, we have finalised the design", Chairman of
Indian Space Research Organisation, G Madhavan Nair told PTI
here.

According to Honorary Adviser of Indian Space
Research Organisation (I.S.R.O.) V.Gnana Gandhi
leading the technical team in this project, I.S.R.O. and Tata
Motors entered into an M.o.U. in 2006 to design and develop an
automobile bus using hydrogen as a fuel through fuel cell
route.

Nair said: "Tatas are taking the responsibility for the
locomotive part of it, and hydrogen handling system also.
First protomodel has been assembled. Results are good. May be
next year, it should be on the road".

Gandhi said: "We are planning to integrate the system in
the first quarter of next year (January-March 2009), and
vehicle integration in the second quarter".

He said the hydrogen cells are a spin-off of the
cryogenic technology that I.S.R.O. has been developing for the
last few years.

"I.S.R.O. has a very rich technology in producing,
storing and handling gaseous and liquid hydrogen in the last
three decades. Our expertise is also in safety. We want to
develop (hydrogen fuel cells for automobiles) for India.
Hydrogen is the future energy", Gandhi said.

I.S.R.O.officials said the agency entered into a tie-up
with Tata Motors because it did not have expertise in
automobiles.

Gandhi said the I.S.R.O. team had generated technical
specifications for all the elements and general specifications
for the bus, while preliminary and detailed design review for
all components and subsystems have been completed.

Flow and thermal analysis for critical components have
been carried out. Most of the components, including gaseous
hydrogen and air compressors, coolant pumps, hydrogen storage
system, regulating system and ejectors, have been realised.

Explaining how the whole system works, Gandhi said
hydrogen would be fed to the fuel cells which would then
produce 80 kw of electric power to drive the bus. "We are
planning to drive a bus... a CNG-type bus. Hydrogen in eight
bottles at high pressure is stored at the top of the bus.

Gandhi said the cost of running hydrogen-fuel powered bus
would be higher than the conventional vehicles run on diesel,
since its environmental-friendly and zero-pollution would go a
long way in ridding cities of vehicular pollution and enable
earning of carbon credits. PTI RS
SAK