ISRO, Tata Motors Develop India's First Hydrogen Fuel Cell Bus In Pune

For the first time in the India , an hydrogen-powered automobile bus has been developed and introduced by Tata Motors Limited (TML) along with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) after several years of research.


Tata Motors launched the future of mass public transportation at its Pune facility and took another step in the direction of green technology and mobility solutions.

The Hydrogen Powered Starbus Fuel Cell bus is a zero-emission mass transport solution, for inter-city commute and has been developed in partnership with ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation). Combining hydrogen gas and oxygen, the fuel cell produces electricity to power the electric motor, with water and heat as a byproduct.The company launched the Starbus Electric 9m, Starbus Electric 12m and the Starbus Hybrid 12m range of buses which are designed, developed, powered by alternate fuels and made in India. The company says will be a good for smart cities. The company also showcased the country's first Fuel Cell bus (12m), LNG Powered bus (12m), and an 18m Articulated bus.

It's a CNG-type bus that runs on hydrogen fuel, creating zero pollution. Hydrogen in bottles at high pressure is stored at the top of the bus.

The hydrogen cells were a spin-off of the cryogenic technology that Isro had been developing for the last few years, the Bangalore-headquartered Isro officials said.

"That's not exactly the cryogenic technology...(It's) liquid hydrogen handling and that's where Isro has some expertise," they said.

Isro has a very rich technology in producing, storing and handling gaseous and liquid hydrogen in the last three decades. Its expertise is also in safety. An Isro team had generated technical specifications for all the elements and general specifications for the bus.

How the technology works :-

The fuel cell technology makes it a clean and silent bus on-road. Hydrogen is stored in compressed form, which combines with oxygen from the air to generate electricity, and gives water vapour as the only emission.

This electricity is used to charge the battery to power the motor of the bus. A number of fuel cells are combined to form a fuel cell stack, which is placed in the rear module of the bus.