Ballard Power unveils new fuel cell module for city buses
Ballard Power has been active in the European market with its fuel cell modules for some time: according to the company, they have already been installed in over 850 vehicles on the continent and are mainly used by bus manufacturers Solaris from Poland and Wrightbus from Northern Ireland. For example, Rhein-Erft-Verkehrsgesellschaft (REVG) has 26 Solaris hydrogen buses in service, while WestVerkehr operates twelve Wrightbus hydrogen buses in the Heinsberg district. It is important to understand that a fuel cell module is not an engine, but a type of power generator that converts hydrogen into electricity and supplies an electric motor.
To date, Ballard Power has mainly sold FCmove-HD fuel cell modules with 70 kW output and FCmove-HD+ modules with 100 kW output in Europe. Now, with the FCmove-SC, a new fuel cell module for urban transport is being launched, based on Ballard’s FCmove family. It is designed to offer higher continuous power, simplified vehicle integration, improved operating performance and lower life cycle costs as part of Ballard’s diesel parity strategy.
Specifically, Ballard Power cites the following improvements:
- 25 per cent higher volumetric power density through integrated DC/DC housing
- 25 per cent higher maximum cooler outlet temperature (60 °C → 75 °C) for simplified vehicle thermal management
- 40 per cent fewer components
“The FCmove®-SC is the latest product on Ballard’s new core product platform, which anchors broader advances targeting the industry’s core challenge: narrowing the gap in cost of ownership parity with legacy diesel systems,” said Kevin Colbow, senior vice president and chief technology officer at Ballard.
The new fuel cell module offers a peak power output of at least 75 kW and is optimised for consistent operating performance and higher thermal reserves for improved efficiency. Efficient subsystems are designed to support an expected service life of approximately 25,000 operating hours under standard operating cycles in public transport.
Improvement of fleet services
At the same time, Ballard is expanding its fleet services to combine FCmove-SC with predictive maintenance and analytics. Ballard’s integrated communications and FCServiceCloud Customer Insight online portal are designed to enable preventive and predictive maintenance processes, helping operators maximise uptime and reduce lifecycle support costs.
“Our focus is to deliver practical, measurable steps that move fuel cell buses closer to diesel parity,” said David Mucciacciaro, Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer. “We’re benefitting from the most operational experience in the bus segment and on insights from our long-standing customers, to deliver a solution that simplifies vehicle integration, reduces operating and maintenance costs – backed by services that keep fleets reliably on the road.”
Ballard Power will be exhibiting the FCmove-SC and other solutions for the transport sector at Busworld in Brussels from 4 to 9 October in Hall 9, Stand 579.
This article was first published by Florian Treiß for electrive’s German edition.
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