British Hydrogen Bus Supplier Aeristech Collapses 31
A British manufacturer of hydrogen fuel cell components for London's double-decker bus fleet has collapsed into administration, jeopardizing a $15.8 million government-backed project to cut transport emissions. Aeristech Limited, which was developing high-powered compressors for hydrogen fuel cells, was working on Project HEIDI to retrofit London buses with hydrogen technology. The project received $7.84 million in government funding last year, with additional investment from project partners including University of Bath and Equipmake.
Thank Goodness (Score:4, Funny)
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> is anyone in continental Europe successfully riding the hydrogen bus economically?
If it fails there, then maybe there's a reason. That's why they should share R&D.
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Administration is like chapter 11 bankruptcy, liquidation is like chapter 7.
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Thank goodness they collapsed instead of exploded!
The British can't seem to get a break with hydrogen.
First, the R101, and now, this.
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Only posting because I've been looking into it on one of my obsessions lately, but the R101's crash was mostly structural exacerbated by bad weather. It did eventually ignite, but that was long after it had run into serious problems making a crash inevitable.
Oddly enough, hydrogen, while a factor in enough rigid airship explosions to be a serious concern and a reason to avoid hydrogen in the first place, was not the principle cause of most peacetime rigid airship failures. I say peacetime, because while tec
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That, if true (the inquiry didn't find conclusive evidence) contributed, along with dubious instruments on board - but leaks happen, the design should have allowed on some level for that, including providing information to the crew so they could land safely.
The R101 was in general a fiasco, largely because of politics - the more conservatively designed rival R100 was eating its lunch and the people in charge for some reason wanted a "Government project vs Private project" thing because they were trying to p
Dumb idea anyway (Score:2, Insightful)
Hydrogen is a horrible way to power vehicles except in niche use cases. Just power the buses with batteries and charge them up at depots. If necessary develop a battery swap tech.
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This is a niche use case.
The battery tech that can run a bus for a full day isn't there yet and a hydrogen bus could be refilled a lot faster than an BEV bus can recharge.
Still, hydrogen is a crappy solution unless we can find a way to pump it directly out of the sun.
Either it's made from a fossil fuel an is just as dirty as an ICE engine, if not worse because of the extra steps involved.
Or it's incredible wasteful by using 3 times as much electricity per mile as a the same size BEV in the case of hydrogen
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This wasn't a pure-hydrogen/fuel cell project,it had a battery/hybrid component.
https://aeristech-24932539.hs-... [hs-sites-eu1.com]
Re: Dumb idea anyway (Score:2)
All HEVs have a battery. The fuel cell is only efficient in a small load range. It is essentially a range extender in almost all designs.
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Yes it is, and London is running a fair number of them right now. Try taking a bus on the 94 route for example, then you will see that battery electric buses are definitely ready for prime time now, at least for local routes. Maybe for regional routes it isn't ready yet, but they are other operators such as Oxford Tube, not Transport for London.
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Either it's made from a fossil fuel an is just as dirty as an ICE engine
It is not. Diesel buses emit their crap right into the most densely populated areas. Hydrogen fuel cells emit water. There's more to pollution than carbon. Though I do not think hydrogen is the way forwards.
But I bet the busses from this article sounded really good in the brochure.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
They were pretty good, starting in 2004, long before battery buses were practical. Given pollution kills 4000 people per yea
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> This is a niche use case.
It absolutely isn't, though. It's a bus.
> The battery tech that can run a bus for a full day isn't there yet
Quick search says Londonâ(TM)s red double-decker buses drive less than 200 miles per day in city traffic conditions.
The electric buses they use in Sidney, Australia are good for 250 miles and recharge in 90 minutes. Assuming the bus driver takes a lunch break at some point, a 20-minute mid-day charge session would easily push the daily range close to 400mi.
And you
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Hydrogen is a horrible way to power vehicles except in niche use cases. Just power the buses with batteries and charge them up at depots. If necessary develop a battery swap tech.
Wow, it's amazing - your proposed solution has probably never been considered before, it's really quite ground-breaking, and to think you were able to come up with such a brilliant suggestion when you know absolutely nothing about the use-case or any of the considerations involved is really quite remarkable...
Re: Dumb idea anyway (Score:2)
It's a bus. The considerations are well understood and heavy vehicles are typically ideal candidates for battery swaps because of their design. Hydrogen is a dream, and a dumb one.
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When evaluated based on a small-scale deployment, battery-electric buses have clear economic advantages over fuel-cell battery-electric buses. However, when evaluated based on a large-scale deployment and considering the technology constraints of both the buses and the refueling infrastructure, strictly from a cost perspective there is no one technology that had a clear advantage over the others. With economies of scale, the purchase price of both batteryelectric and fuel cell battery-electric buses are expected to be similar, so performance, infrastructure, and operational advantages will be the main drivers to separate the two technologies.
Battery-electric buses have the advantage of lower maintenance and predictable fueling cost; however, complexities associated with scaling charging infrastructure, including power management, energy storage, back-up generation, equipment maintenance, and charger management will drive significant operational changes which may necessitate significant additional investment.
Fuel cell battery-electric buses have superior range, predictable mid-life overhaul cost, low large-scale infrastructure cost, and would drive no significant operational changes; however, the cost of hydrogen could be a barrier to unlocking maximum savings. If low-cost delivered hydrogen could be sourced, the potential lifetime savings from fuel cell battery-electric buses could be on par with, or better than, battery-electric buses. If Transit is restricted to producing hydrogen fuel on-site, operational savings are likely to be only moderately better than diesel buses.
https://info.winnipegtransit.c... [winnipegtransit.com]
I have no dog in this fight as I don't use transit, but I'm glad they are looking to spend my tax dollars as efficiently as possible.
14 years (Score:2)
The company that went "into administration" had many, many activities outside this one bus project, and to be honest there's no clear statement that it was this one project that brought the company down. The report is that the company that was working on a high-profile project went broke, but it could easily have been one of their other projects... this wasn't a single-product venture, they'd been in business for 14 years.
"Aeristech Limited" (Score:3)
Probably got driven out of business by Sephiroth Engineering Inc.
Here's an idea... (Score:2)
Instead of trying to get battery and hydrogen power to work, buses can collect electric current from wires strung above the road. This will make the buses lighter, more efficient, safer and enable them to run all day and night.
I've even come up with a name for them: "Trolleybuses".
I also thought of a more advanced concept where these electric buses run on rails set into the road but I don't want to start a revolution here.
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Instead of trying to get battery and hydrogen power to work, buses can collect electric current from wires strung above the road. This will make the buses lighter, more efficient, safer and enable them to run all day and night.
I've even come up with a name for them: "Trolleybuses".
All good ideas for the middle of high traffic areas (cities). The ROI for long haul rarely traveled routes, however, is low.
Re: Here's an idea... (Score:2)
You can have a hybrid trolley bus with a battery on board and a lowering pantograph.
Re: Here's an idea... (Score:2)
electric buses run on rails set into the road
You really just hate bicycles, don't you?
Hydrogen is a great research project (Score:2)
It's NOT ready for widespread deployment, not even close