NEW DELHI: Dr Jitendra Singh, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India, on Sunday, August 21, launched India’s first indigenously developed Hydrogen Fuel Cell Bus that is developed by KPIT-Council of Science and Information Technology (CSIR) in Pune.
Dr Singh, while addressing the gathering, noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision on Hydrogen to make India self-reliant (Atma Nirbhar) in the energy sector. He added further that the fuel cell utilises Hydrogen and air, and the only effluent it releases is water hence hailed as the technology of the future. While on the other hand, a diesel bus emits 100 tonnes of CO2 every year and there are over one million such buses in the country.
He also highlighted that approximately 12 to 14 per cent of the carbon and particulate emissions come from heavy-duty commercial vehicles and are difficult to capture as these are decentralised emissions.
The high efficiency of these fuel cell vehicles and high energy density of hydrogen reduces the operational costs in rupees per kilometre for trucks and buses. Dr Singh also applauded the efforts of KPIT and CSIR-NCL and other scientists of the country. The newly developed technology is part of the novel downstream process technology that makes it competitive as per the global standards. The technology is already complete and ready to be scaled up commercially.