Successful Caetano hydrogen bus trial in Dublin
Hydrogen Mobility Ireland ran an in-service, trial of a Caetano H2.CityGold hydrogen bus in the Dublin area. The H2.CityGold, powered by a Toyota fuel cell stack, was the first hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) put into public service operation in Ireland and provided in-use information about the potential for large scale introduction of this technology.
Since November the vehicle operated on different routes with CIÉ Group bus companies, Bus Éireann and Dublin Bus as well as by Dublin City University and Dublin Airport, although carrying limited passengers’ due to Covid’s current restrictions. The buses covered a total of 3,000km with hydrogen consumption of 5kg/100km, based on actual operational conditions with passengers and heating.
The Caetano H2.CityGold was refilled with ‘green’ hydrogen produced in Dublin by BOC Gases Ireland using renewable electricity and water.
“CaetanoBus was very honoured to support Ireland’s first hydrogen fuel cell bus trial with its H2.CityGold,” says Kohei Umeno, chief commercial officer, CaetanoBus.
“Being part of this project, showing the capability of our hydrogen bus solution in real operation and supporting Ireland, is a significant step to prove that our H2.CityGold will be the solution to achieve decarbonisation without any compromise of bus service and passenger comfort.”
Ray Coyne, Dublin Bus CEO, adds: “Hydrogen will play a really important role in the journey towards an even more low emission public transport fleet in Dublin.
“It was very exciting that our customers were amongst the first people in Ireland to travel by hydrogen during our three-week operation of the Caetano hydrogen fuel cell bus in November 2020. Driver and customer feedback was very positive and we gained important experience ahead of our deployment of three hydrogen vehicles in 2021.”