Analysis of municipal bus operations for the advancement of fuel cell technology

Technical Report · Sat Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 1985

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6015838· OSTI ID:6015838

Several technological and economic advances, however, must be made before fuel cell power plants can be used on the typical municipal bus. Further, it is highly possible that fuel cell-powered buses, representing a radical departure in design and operational needs, will require a different set of skills for the bus maintenance worker. As a joint effort between the city of Albuquerque and the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), this study is a beginning effort to accelerate the use of fuel cell technology in actual bus applications. In recognition of the developing stage of fuel cell technology and its differences from conventional power plants, this study was designed as an initial step necessary to move fuel cell research for buses from the theoretical stages to a more applied setting. The information produced by this project will be valuable to national fuel cell research for buses to verify existing knowledge and extrapolate with relative certainty the performance and operating cost of buses powered by fuel cells. The secondary benefit from this investigation has been the development of improved maintenance and operational data on Albuquerque's city bus system. The methodologies and information produced by this study should be useful not only to the city of Albuquerque and LANL, but to other transit operators and fuel cell researchers. The data will be made available through both the Urban Consortium Energy Task Force, and the vast networking capabilities of LANL. 1 ref., 9 figs., 7 tabs.

• Research Organization: Urban Consortium for Technology Initiatives (USA). Energy Task Force
• DOE Contract Number: FG02-78IR05106
• OSTI ID: 6015838
• Report Number(s): DOE/IR/05106-T91; ON: DE89013856
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION
300500 -- Fuel Cells
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
320203 -- Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization-- Transportation-- Land & Roadway
33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS
330000* -- Advanced Propulsion Systems
BUSES
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
EFFICIENCY
ELECTROCHEMICAL CELLS
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
ENERGY MANAGEMENT
EVALUATION
FEDERAL REGION VI
FUEL CELLS
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
MANAGEMENT
MASS TRANSIT SYSTEMS
NEW MEXICO
NORTH AMERICA
TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT
TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS
URBAN AREAS
USA
VEHICLES