The need to decrease greenhouse gases emissions in the transport sector has resulted in the requirement for zero emission technologies in city centre bus fleets. Currently, battery electric buses are the most common choice, with both single deck and double deck vehicles in regular use. However, long-term operational capabilities are still largely unknown and unreported. Hydrogen fuel cell electric buses are an emerging zero emission technology that have the potential to complement a battery electric bus fleet where the duty cycle is challenging for current battery electric configurations. This paper compares the difference in energy consumption, for a given chassis configuration, passenger load, and heating requirement, of generic battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell electric buses operating in a typical UK city environment. A methodology was employed that will provide bus operators with a robust mechanism to inform buying decisions, based on their route characteristics, when transitioning to a zero-emission fleet. Simulations performed using battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell electric models showed that the hydrogen fuel cell electric bus has a much higher predicted range (465 km) and operating time (23.1 hours) than the battery electric equivalent (273 km and 13.5 hours) when considering a duty cycle of mixed city operation. While the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle showed limited variation in the range across all drive cycles considered, the battery electric bus showed a high percentage decrease (16.4%) in range when subjected to drive cycles with higher average road gradient. Meanwhile, when considering operation on a drive cycle with 0% average road gradient, the battery electric bus was predicted to have a percentage increase in range of 12.5%. This study shows that when considering a zero-emission vehicle technology mix, the characteristics of the service routes should be considered before deciding which powertrain configuration to utilise on each route.


    Access

    Check access

    Check availability in my library

    Order at Subito €


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Determining the Distribution of Battery Electric and Fuel Cell Electric Buses in a Metropolitan Public Transport Network


    Additional title:

    Sae Technical Papers



    Conference:

    WCX SAE World Congress Experience ; 2022



    Publication date :

    2022-03-29




    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Print


    Language :

    English




    Determining the Distribution of Battery Electric and Fuel Cell Electric Buses in a Metropolitan Public Transport Network

    Blades, Luke Aubrey William / MacNeill, Rachel / Zhang, Yuanjian et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2022


    Determining the Distribution of Battery Electric and Fuel Cell Electric Buses in a Metropolitan Public Transport Network

    Blades, Luke Aubrey William / MacNeill, Rachel / Zhang, Yuanjian et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2022


    The impact of battery electric buses in public transport

    Valenti, Gaetano / Liberto, Carlo / Lelli, Maria et al. | IEEE | 2017


    Alternative Propulsion Buses in the Metropolitan Public Transport

    Lakatos, István / Szauter, Ferenc / Pup, Dániel et al. | TIBKAT | 2021


    Alternative Propulsion Buses in the Metropolitan Public Transport

    Lakatos, István / Szauter, Ferenc / Pup, Dániel et al. | Springer Verlag | 2020