Three hydrogen-fuelled buses, costing £750,000 each, begin a two-year trial today in London as part of the European Union Clean Urban Transport for Europe (CUTE) project.

The Mercedes-Benz Citaro buses, equipped with 205kW Ballard fuel cell engines (featuring platinum electrodes), will be running a full public service between Oxford Circus in the West End of the city and Ilford, east of London.  This long route provides an excellent opportunity to study the performance of the buses under a range of traffic conditions.  The public transport company ‘First’ is in the process of creating a hydrogen-fuelling centre for the buses in east London.  Meanwhile, a temporary site has been chosen, with hydrogen brought in by tanker in liquid form.

On board, the hydrogen gas will be stored in pressurised cylinders located in the roof compartment, alongside the fuel cell equipment.  The buses can run up to 125 miles before refuelling, with water vapour the only emission.

The City of London is one of ten cities participating in the CUTE project, which will see 30 fuel cell buses operating on European roads over the next two years.  The other cities in the project include Amsterdam, Barcelona, Hamburg, Madrid, Porto, Reykjavik, Stockholm and Stuttgart.

Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone described the buses as the ‘greenest, cleanest and quietest ever’.