Four buses with hydrogen internal-combustion engines from MAN in regular service in Berlin

MAN Nutzfahrzeuge AG and NEOMAN Bus GmbH are continuing their commitment to the HyFLEET:CUTE project which started at the beginning of this year with the aim of promoting hydrogen technology. Following the official announcement on the "Innovation programme for hydrogen and fuel-cell technology" by German Federal Minister of Transport Wolfgang Tiefensee in Berlin on 30th October 2006, the Berlin transport authority BVG can add vehicle nos. 3 and 4 to its fleet. MAN Nutzfahrzeuge AG regards the programme as a major step towards successful further development of this technology in Germany and will continue its involvement both in hydrogen internal-combustion engines as a technology for the near future and in fuel-cell drive as a more long-term goal.
Altogether 14 MAN Lion’s City buses with two axles and a hydrogen internal combustion engine will be delivered to the BVG and tested there in practical service until the end of the project in early 2009. This future-orientated technology, which is largely free of exhaust gases, is only a few years away from its introduciton into series production. The fleet of 14 buses will be made up of the four buses delivered to date with naturally aspirated ICE engines and a further ten buses which will be equipped with turbocharged engines and are scheduled for delivery starting in summer 2007. Development of the approximately 200 kW turbocharged engine is one of the main goals of the HyFLEET:CUTE project and is an important milestone for this technology.
The first two vehicles have been in operation since the World Cup 2006 in June and have meanwhile clocked up some 20,000 km. Over 10,000 passengers were ferried to and fro in the shuttle service between the airport and the Olympic Stadium, and excellent consumption figures were recorded. In the ensuing day-to-day service, which has been largely without problem, information has been obtained that will be useful in the further development of the vehicles. An additional radiator was fitted, for example (the diesel buses have only one), to take account of the generally higher combustion temperatures in the hydrogen engines.
In the new HyFLEET:CUTE project the two future technologies using hydrogen – fuel-cell drive and hydrogen internal-combustion engines – will for the first time be combined in an international European project. The BVG as a partner in the project put the first hydrogen buses into scheduled service in summer 2006, thereby assuming a pilot role as the first major customer to do so.
In the course of the project the BVG will set up a special maintenance shop for the hydrogen buses at its depot in Spandau. In the immediately vicinity of this depot TOTAL has opened a new filling station, which by the end of this year will also have two stationary fuel cells. Open to the general public, this filling station offers not only conventional fuels but also hydrogen in both gaseous and liquid form. The gaseous hydrogen needed for the buses is generated on site by a liquified gas reformer. The BVG, TOTAL and MAN first started to gather experience with hydrogen buses in scheduled service back in 2004. Fundamentally speaking, the MAN hydrogen internal-combustion engines work in much the same way as the proven MAN natural-gas engines already in service throughout Europe. They too are in-line six-cylinder units that work on the four-stroke otto principle. As the engine has been derived from the series-produced natural-gas engine, many of its components have already been tested over several years. Even today the MAN hydrogen internal-combustion engines have emission figures well below all EU limits on exhaust-gas emissions fixed to date and have no problem in complying even with the EEV standard.
With the information gained from this project the new technology will be able to prove its suitability in day-to-day operation and ultimately be able to go into series production. MAN expects the hydrogen internal-combustion engine to reach this stage in only a few years' time, and for this reason NEOMAN Bus GmbH is already negotiating with other customers throughout Europe on the delivery of further vehicles from a small production run of 50 starting in 2009. The first letters of intent have already been signed, e.g. with the Greater Rotterdam authority on the planned procurement of buses with internal-combustion engine.
The HyFLEET:CUTE hydrogen project covers 47 hydrogen-powered buses in regular service in ten cities on three continents. The aim of the four-year project, which is sponsored by the EU, is to develop and demonstrate advanced hydrogen drive concepts for buses as well as technologies and processes for producing and distributing hydrogen in the form of a sustained supply channel.