The City of Birmingham, Alabama will test a transit bus that will run on hydrogen next year.
This story from the Birmingham (AL) News says it’s the work of a University of Alabama-Birmingham engineering team, along with Auburn University… among others:
“This testing in Birmingham gives us a chance to evaluate the fuel cell in a unique, real world setting,” said Fouad Fouad, UAB team leader and chair of the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering.
“We want to monitor the bus’s performance in our brutally hot and humid summers and the fuel cell’s ability to power the bus over the city’s hills and terrain,” Fouad said. “Only after studying these elements can we decide whether the hydrogen fuel cell is a viable option.”
The bus will be operated and maintained by the Birmingham Jefferson County Transit Authority. It will be compared to regular diesel and natural gas buses in the fleet.
The project is funded through a congressional earmark from U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby to research alternative fuels and hydrogen as an energy source.
The article goes on to say that the first phase of the test will use to small hydrogen fuel cells to run the bus, working up to a larger cell.