For the first time in the country, a Hydrogen-powered automobile bus has been developed by Tata Motors Limited (TML) and Indian Space Research Organisation after several years of research.
The hydrogen fuel-fitted bus was demonstrated at Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre, an ISRO facility in Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu today.
It's a CNG-type bus. Hydrogen in bottles at high pressure is stored at the top of the bus and there would be zero pollution.
The hydrogen cells were a spin-off of the cryogenic technology that ISRO had been developing for the last few years, the Bangalore-headquartered ISRO officials said.
"That's not exactly the cryogenic technology...(It's) liquid hydrogen handling and that's where ISRO has some expertise," they said.
ISRO has a very rich technology in producing, storing and handling gaseous and liquid hydrogen in the last three decades. Its expertise is also in safety. An ISRO team had generated technical specifications for all the elements and general specifications for the bus.
According to Honorary Adviser of ISRO V Gnana Gandhi, who led the technical team in this project, ISRO and TML entered into an MoU in 2006 to design and develop an automobile bus using hydrogen as a fuel through fuel cell route.
Gandhi, a Padmashree awardee and retired scientist from ISRO, and Dr M Raja, DGM of TML made the announcement the two organisations have developed fuel cell bus for the first time in India, which will run on Hydrogen.
"This is a leap for automobile industry for future transportation. In this vehicle there will be zero pollution since the product of cold combustion is water. This is a result of great team work of Tata Motors and ISRO specialists with contributions from DSIR (Department of Scientific and Industrial Research) and PESO (Petroleum and Explosive Safety Organisation)," Gandhi told PTI here.
