India’s 1st Ever, 100% Made In India Hydrogen Fuel Cell Bus Launched: Zero Smoke, Zero Pollution!

The country’s first ever indigenously developed hydrogen fuel cell bus has been unveiled, in a major contribution to the Atmanirbhar Bharat mission. 

This bus has been developed by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and private firm KPIT Limited.

India’s First Ever Hydrogen Fuel Cell Bus Unveiled In Pune

The bus was unveiled by Union Minister Jitendra Singh in Pune. He said, “”Green hydrogen is an excellent clean energy vector that enables deep decarbonisation of difficult-to-abate emissions from the refining industry, fertiliser industry, steel industry, cement industry and also from the heavy commercial transportation sector.”

This initiative was a collaborative effort between scientists from two Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) labs – National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), Pune and Central ElectroChemical Research Institute (CECRI), Karaikudi in assistance with IT service provider, KPIT, Pune.

According to CSIR’s know-how, CSIR and KPIT have successfully developed a 10 kWe automotive grade LT-PEMFC fuel cell stack technology, over four years of efforts.

How Does This Technology Work?

Here HFC is a low temperature Proton Exchange Membrane(PEM) type Fuel Cell which operates at 65-75 degree centigrade, thus making it suitable for vehicular applications.

While, the heart of the PEM fuel cell technology includes the membrane electrode assembly, which is wholly a CSIR knowhow.  

KPIT has assisted with expertise in stack engineering including light-weight metal bipolar plate and gasket design, development of the balance of plant (BoP), system integration, control software and electric powertrain that enabled running the fuel cell vehicle.

The fuel cell technology emits only water not smoke, thus cutting down the emission of harmful greenhouse gases along with other air pollutants. 

Further, this technology has the potential to reduce dependence on petrol and diesel once introduced in markets. 

It is of great significance as this could help in creating a future with fewer polluting emissions with fuel combustion from vehicles. Moreover, this latest technology is better suited for heavy commercial vehicles like trucks or buses, rather than passenger cars, according to the experts.

Apart from this, KPIT is also working on a similar kind of technology for commercial vehicles.

Another advantage is about maintenance as this hybrid vehicle will be required only once in five years, as per the experts.