BusTalk

[ripta42]

CNN



Some Florida amusement park visitors may enjoy space-themed roller-coasters, but the first vehicle they board at Orlando International Airport may be the most futuristic ride of their vacation.

The airport is testing four Ford shuttle vans equipped with internal combustion engines modified to run on hydrogen instead of gasoline.

"It's quiet, it doesn't shake like diesel, it doesn't have that diesel smell," said Rafael Sanchez, who has been driving the vans for a year. The quieter engine makes conversation inside the bus easier than in conventional vehicles.

"Hydrogen is one of the many technologies we are exploring, trying to become more of a green airport," said Ronald Lewis, director of airport operations. Watch the hydrogen-powered buses in action »

Vehicles powered with hydrogen engines are different from the many vehicles across the nation that run with the help of hydrogen fuel cells -- which are the gold standard of green machines.

The use of hydrogen in internal combustion engines is far less efficient than in the fuel cells.

The modified engines aboard the Ford E-450 shuttle buses are 6.8 liter V-10s. The airport's fleet also includes three gas-electric hybrid vehicles and 24 biodiesel buses. The facility also powers its maintenance equipment -- such as lawnmowers and tractors -- with biodiesel.

But like many experiments with alternative fuels, the price is very high and the long-term outcome is unknown. Proponents of hydrogen technology have long had a chicken-and-egg dilemma over whether to build million-dollar fueling facilities or to wait until more vehicles are in use.

Energy companies are reluctant to pour money into expensive fueling stations without a lot of hydrogen vehicles around, but consumers are not likely to buy a vehicle without adequate places to fill up.

"It is clear nothing is going to displace gasoline or diesel for 20, 30, maybe 40 years," said John Lapetz, who has been working on alternative fuels at Ford for more than 20 years.

The Orlando project has several goals: To get average consumers acquainted with hydrogen and to acquire data on the buses' performance in a setting where they are in use almost nonstop.

Lapetz said it's an effort to use a technology that customers take for granted (the internal combustion engine), while preparing for the day when drivers can complete the divorce from fossil fuels.

At the Boggy Creek Hydrogen Fueling Station in Orlando, the hydrogen is produced on-site. "We are doing a process called steam methane re-forming, which is natural gas to hydrogen," said Puneet Verma, manager of biofuels and hydrogen at Chevron Technology Ventures, one of the players involved in the project.

During a careful fueling process, technicians check for leaks of the highly flammable hydrogen -- leaks both in the bus and the fuel pump.

Because a fossil fuel, methane, is used to make the hydrogen, the buses are about 12 percent cleaner than gasoline or diesel when their entire carbon footprint is measured.

"We view the hydrogen efforts as a technical success," said Verma. "This is the first time we have been able to demonstrate actual production of hydrogen at the station. It's not necessarily an economic success yet."

"The ultimate goal is hydrogen fuel cell cars," Verma said. "The hydrogen internal combustion engine buses are much less expensive to manufacture, but they consume a lot more hydrogen."

Verma said the buses are "valid transition technology" aimed at quickly building significant demand for hydrogen, which would then justify an expensive infrastructure.

The hydrogen test project also includes the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, Ford Motor Company, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Progress Energy and SeaWorld.

Hydrogen buses began shuttling SeaWorld employees in February from the park's outer parking lots to their workplaces.

"The environment is really an important part of SeaWorld's culture here," said Kelly Bernish, director of environmental health and safety at Busch theme parks SeaWorld, Discovery Cove and Aquatica.

Bernish described the venture as another opportunity for "employees to feel like they can impact the environment by using this kind of vehicle, that will lessen our footprint on the world."

SeaWorld's Discovery Cove animal training supervisor Jay Tacey said "somebody has to get the ball rolling. Until somebody takes that first step, there's always going to be the 'what if?'"

"We are hopeful that since they built the facility here, the only one in the southeast United States, that there will be a long-term usage for it."

[CAT218]

Interesting. There is one operating for the City of Las Vegas' "City Ride". I see it every now and then near the LV Premium Outlets running the loop between there and the Downtown Transportation Center.

[ripta42]

Interesting. I'll be there in a couple of weeks; I'll have to check it out!

[CAT218]

It's an all white bus. I haven't really looked for it lately to see if it's running around but I'm sure it is. They are still running some 30' Eldorado's that we gave to them too.

You might be in luck by the time that you come out here since the new NABI's may finally hit the streets by then. They are running into a lot of little problems before they are ready to be released for revenue service.

[ripta42]

Or I'll be in luck that they won't be; I'd rather get shots of the New Flyer high-floors!

[Mr. Linsky]

Michael,

I think the first thing you have to worry about in Las Vegas is your luck at the crap tables! (everything else is icing on the cake! - actually, I only go there for the shows myself).

If hydrogen is to get off the ground at all, it will have to be an orchestrated effort between both auto manufacturers and fuel refiners resulting in fueling facilities ready for mass consumption of the product.

It can't be a 'which came first - the chicken or the egg' scenario because both will be needed simultaneously.

I think though that everything we talk of now in terms of alternate fuels are 'stopgaps' at best and almost tantamount to emptying the ocean with a spoon!

It will come far after our time but I think the final answer to our problems will be manageable Atomic Fusion for all of our domestic and industrial applications.

Laboratories worldwide are now in a race to perfect viable systems - no doubt that there will be a 'Nobel Prize' in the offing for that achievement.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY