Bavarian liquid hydrogen bus demonstration project - safety, licensing and acceptability aspects

A regular 12 m city bus of the MAN SL 202 type with an internal combustion engine adapted to hydrogen operation and auxiliary gasoline operation was demonstrated in the Bavarian cities of Erlangen and Munich between April 1996 and August 1998. Three bus operators, Erlanger Stadtwerke, Stadtwerke Muenchen and Autobus Oberbayern were testing the bus in three different operating schemes. In order to be able to perform this worldwide first public demonstration of a liquid hydrogen (LH{sub 2}) city bus in regular service, several requirements with respect to safety, licensing, training and acceptability had to be fulfilled. These activities were focusing mainly on the hydrogen specific issues such as (a) integration of onboard LH{sub 2} storage vessels, piping and instrumentation, (b) implementation of storage and refueling infrastructure in the operators' yards, (c) adaptation of the maintenance garages, (d) training of operating and maintenance personnel. During phase II of the demonstration activity a poll was performed on passengers traveling onboard the hydrogen-powered city bus in order to determined the level of acceptance among the users of the bus. The bus was designed and manufactured by MAN Nutzfahrzeuge Aktiengesellschaft. The cryogenic fuel storage and the refueling equipment were designed and manufactured by Linde AG. The realization of the hardware was financially supported by the European Commission (EC) within the Euro-Quebec Hydro-Hydrogen Pilot Project. The demonstration phase was financially supported by EC and the Bavarian State Government. Ludwig-Boelkow-Systemtechnik performed project monitoring for both funding organizations. The presentation will summarize the most important results of this demonstration phase and will address the measures undertaken in order to get the bus, the refueling infrastructure and the maintenance and operating procedures approved by the relevant authorities.