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Hydrogen for fuel: City may get bus with new power cell
(Chattanooga Times (Free Press, TN) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Jun. 1--A CARTA shuttle bus powered by electricity from a hydrogen fuel cell could be running on Chattanooga's streets by the end of the year, officials said Wednesday.
Approval of the nearly $1 million project by the Federal Transit Administration may come within the next 30 days, said John Powell, who directs the Advanced Transportation Technology Institute in Chattanooga.
"There are probably not a half dozen of these nationally," Mr. Powell said at the Tennessee Valley Technology Corridor Summit about buses run on innovative fuel cell technology.
He said the money would fund operational costs and the purchase of the fuel cell and the hydrogen.
Ron Sweeney, the Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority's general manager, said plans call for equipping one of CARTA's all-electric, 22- foot downtown shuttle buses with the fuel cell.
"We're all ready to do it," he said. "We're hoping FTA will release the funds."
General Hydrogen Corp., with offices in Gallatin, Tenn., would supply the fuel cell, Mr. Sweeney said.
Tony Troutt, the company's vice president of business development, said it already has done initial monitoring of a CARTA shuttle bus and determined the fuel cell would work in it.
"We've got the system designed," he said. "We're waitingwait - wait- ing for the green light."
The fuel cell bus offers advantages over the current batterypowered vehicles including better range and performance and the ability to go up steeper hills, officials said.
Mr. Sweeney said the buses' existing battery packs must be changed out during the day, while the fuel cell vehicle could run the entire 13.5-hour operating period.
"It will save us a good bit of labor," he said. Also, batteries must be replaced every three or four years, Mr. Sweeney said.
"It could save in capital costs, as well," he said.
CARTA operates one of the nation's largest fleets of electric and hybrid electric buses. It has 12 electric buses and five hybrids.
The CARTA bus would carry hydrogen tanks to supply the fuel cell, Mr. Sweeney said. Also, the bus would carry ultracapacitors in which some electricity is stored, he said.
"If you need to go up a hill or a burst of speed, the ultracapacitors would release some of its stored energy. It would give it that extra boost," he said. Experts see hydrogen-powered fuel cells as one of the possible answers to the nation's consumption of large volumes of oil. With oil and gas prices up and growing concerns about global warming, experts involved with the corridor summit are looking for new ways to move people around.
Ron Bailey, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's dean of engineering, said U.S. dependence on foreign oil has grown since the Arab embargo in the early 1970s. Also, oil costs likely won't go back down again, said Dr. Bailey, whose school is partnering with the Advanced Transportation Technology Institute.
While fuel cell-powered vehicles have a role, Dr. Bailey said, a lot of technologies can come into play.
Wayne Davis, the University of Tennessee's associate dean for research and technology, said it and UTC want to establish aa so-calledso - called socalled "hydrogen highway" in the corridor, which would run from Huntsville, Ala., to Southwest Virginia.
A goal is to set up hydrogen fuel stations in Chattanooga and Knoxville as demonstration projects using fuel cell vehicles, he said.
Also, Dr. Davis said, plans are to operate hydrogen fuel generation stations.
E-mail Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com
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