The City of Busan to Introduce 500 Fuel Cell Electric Buses by 2030
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The City of Busan first introduced a fuel cell electric bus on September 6, 2019 as one of the test bed cities for the fuel cell electric bus pilot project by the Ministry of Environment. Currently, five fuel cell electric buses are in operation in the city and an additional 15 hydrogen buses will be added by this November.
As a result of running hydrogen-electric city buses for one year, the city has confirmed the possibility of converting all of its public transportation vehicles to eco-friendly ones.
The city plans to operate a total of 100 hydrogen buses by 2022 and convert 500, or 20% of the 2,511 city buses, by 2030.
The five hydrogen buses have traveled 325,571㎞ over the past year, which is equivalent to the distance of circling the earth eight times.
The hydrogen buses are powered by electro-chemical cells that combine hydrogen stored in high pressure tanks with oxygen from the air to generate electricity, heat and water. They offer zero-emissions, constant indoor temperature maintenance of the heat byproducts, considerably more efficient operation than regular electric buses and are virtually noise-free.
Currently, there are two hydrogen bus refueling stations in Sasang-gu and Gangseo-gu. The city plans to build two additional hydrogen bus refueling stations in Gijang-gun and Gangseo-gu by 2022 to ensure a stable supply of hydrogen charging stations to accommodate the increase in hydrogen buses.
The city will strive to promote the safety and necessity of the refueling stations to the public.
The city seeks new growth engines within the hydrogen economy. To promote the hydrogen economy, the city, and especially the central government, need to form a social consensus about how the hydrogen economy is safe, economic and eco-friendly by promoting the benefits to the public.
