India’s first Hydrogen Fuel Cell bus

Facts for Prelims

India’s first Hydrogen Fuel Cell bus

News: India's top oil firm Indian Oil Corporation unveiled the nation's first green hydrogen-powered bus that emits just water as it takes the lead in bringing out unrivaled tools to replace fossil fuels.

How do they work?
• In the hydrogen buses, the fuel cell utilises hydrogen and air to generate electricity to power the bus and the only effluent from the bus is water and the fuel cells are highly efficient as compared to IC engines.
• When compared to thermal efficiency of conventional IC engines which is 25 per cent, the electrical efficiency of fuel cells is 55-60 per cent.
• These buses will have a high fuel economy of 12 km/kg of hydrogen as compared to 2.5-3 km/litre of diesel buses.

Scope of Hydrogen in India:
• Hydrogen is deemed as the fuel for future with immense potential in helping India meet its decarbonisation targets and its global demand for hydrogen is expected to increase by four to seven times to 500-800 million tonnes by 2050.
• The domestic demand is expected to increase by four times, from current 6 million tonnes at present to 25- 28 MT by 2050.