Abstract
In 1983, the first modern, urban transit bus powered by an alternative transportation fuel took to the roads in the USA. A little more than a decade later, about 2.5% of all USA buses are powered by alternative transportation fuels and about 20% of the new bus orders for delivery by 1998 will be powered by alternative fuels, mostly by natural gas. There are over 2,200 natural gas buses in operation or on order, plus about 600 additional buses powered by other alternative fuels. When these orders are completed, alternative fuel buses will constitute over 4.4% of the urban bus fleet in the USA. The widespread use of natural gas buses in the USA provides an important transition pathway for hydrogen vehicles because of the similarities between distribution, refueling and onboard energy storage technologies for the two fuels.
Projects demonstrating advanced hybrid-electric buses powered by natural gas or hydrogen and projects demonstrating hydrogen fuel cells in buses are also increasing in number and scale in the USA. Hydrogen buses emit virtually no air pollution and natural gas buses, especially when operating in hybrid configurations, are among the cleanest transportation machines ever built. Urban transit buses are the most promising market entry for alternative transportation fuels in the USA today.
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© 1998 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Cannon, J.S. (1998). Hydrogen and Natural Gas Buses in the USA. In: Saetre, T.O. (eds) Hydrogen Power: Theoretical and Engineering Solutions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9054-9_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9054-9_3
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