There’s currently just one small problem with hydrogen buses…..

Thursday 11th April 2024

I attended a fascinating and timely visit organised by the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport to Metrobus’s Crawley bus garage on Tuesday.

It was to hear more about the challenges the Company is facing with its pioneering introduction of liquid “green” hydrogen including commissioning what is destined to be “the largest fuelling station of its kind in Europe” according to hydrogen supplier Air Products.

But there’s a problem.

Twelve months on from the roll out of the first single deck buses on route 10, the fuelling station remains out of use due to bureaucratic challenges involving the Health & Safety Executive and Government Planning Guidance.

But what came through loud and clear on Tuesday was the determination of the Metrobus team to overcome the hurdles they’ve faced and continue with the roll out so they can take advantage of the undoubted many benefits hydrogen brings.

Managing Director Ed Wills gave us a fascinating comprehensive briefing about all the challenges, teething problems and issues that are inevitable when introducing something as revolutionary as a new fleet of hydrogen powered buses.

Metrobus’s first 20 Wrightbus GB Kite Hydroliner single decks were launched, twelve months later than originally planned, in June 2023 for use on Fastway bus routes linking Crawley with Gatwick Airport (which contributed towards their funding), as well as the UK Government and (because it dates back some time ago when the order was submitted) the European Union JIVE scheme (Joint Initiative for Hydrogen Vehicles).

When I took a ride on the new buses on route 10 last July I explained “one of the current drawbacks of hydrogen operation is the very limited supply of ‘green’ hydrogen. This is affecting ….. all fleets, and indeed at Metrobus only around five of the new fleet are in service on any one day while the current fuelling arrangements at the company’s Crawley bus garage are from a temporary installation with the permanent facility awaiting official authorisation and approval.”

It’s good to see around 10 of the 20 buses are now in service every day, almost the full allocation on route 10, but those frustrations of hydrogen supply still mean the temporary installation is in place and the company is having to rely on the uncertainties surrounding a delivery of the ‘grey’ kind of gas hydrogen (produced by electricity/fossil fuels) from tankers, two or three times a week. And unlike the supply of diesel which has long established and reliable supply chain arrangements, receiving deliveries of hydrogen gas is much more precarious with reliance on ‘just-in-time’ deliveries which sometimes ‘just’ (don’t arrive) ‘in time’.

Ed is both realistic and sanguine about the future prospects. Which is just as well, as in addition to the 20 Hydroliners delivered last year, 34 more are currently in build thanks to a partnership and funding from Surrey County Council and last month, the Company heard its partnership with West Sussex County Council, Surrey County Council, Kent County Council as well as Gatwick Airport had won a bid for funding to buy 43 more hydrogen powered buses (including 11 double decks) with match funding from the Government’s ‘ZEBRA 2’ fund. That’ll bring the number of hyrdogen powered buses based at Crawley to an impressive 97 vehicles, making it possibly the largest such installation in the UK and Europe.

It’s great news for Metrobus and its passengers. The company pays the equivalent of a Euro 6 bus with the funding needed to upgrade to a hydrogen bus coming from Government. With single deck hydrogen buses costing as much as half a million pounds apiece these days, that’s not to be sniffed at. Nor is the cost of the infrastructure needed at the garage.

As well as the storage and dispensing facilities from supplier Air Products, there’s a need to convert workshop areas to accommodate the special requirements of maintaining hydrogen powered buses, not least the need to avoid any ‘sparks effect’.

We were shown around the facilities which have been introduced at Crawley for the first 20 buses including the £400,000 conversion of an existing workshop bay and installing special vents in the roof and a £21,000 anti-static floor surface.

Thankfully the DVSA approved official MoT bay alongside doesn’t need the ‘hydrogen treatment’ as buses are only ‘inspected’ rather than ‘maintained’ when parked in that area, but with the prospect of a fleet of 97 buses, clearly more workshop bays will need converting, as well as engineering staff trained.

Wrightbus is currently providing a full time engineer on site from 06:00 every weekday to oversee any maintenance issues with the fleet which, with just 10 out on a weekday, seven on a Saturday and five on a Sunday from the fleet of 20, is manageable.

Ed explained the reason for his continued commitment to the hydrogen project, notwithstanding the hurdles, is not only the green credentials of the fuel but also its properties make it ideal for the intensive urban services the company operates to Gatwick Airport with 24/7, 365 a year schedules making it impractical if the buses were battery-electric needing regular charging. It’s reckoned five or six extra buses would be required just to maintain current timetables. Hydrogen powered buses, on the other hand, have a range of up to 550 miles making them eminently suitable for this type of intense work as well as longer distance inter-urban routes which also feature prominently in the Metrobus network.

Not only that, but as Ed explained, the Hydrogen storage and dispensing facilities have seen just 12 parking spaces taken out whereas if a fleet of 97 electric buses needed access to battery recharging facilities the space required would be much greater in what is already a confined parking area at the garage.

Although battery range is improving as well as new options for fast charging, the fuelling of a hydrogen bus is expected to take around eight minutes once the new set up is commissioned and the appropriate pressure available, which is much quicker than a full electric battery recharge. Due to the current temporary arrangements it’s taking around 20 minutes to fuel a hydrogen bus.

Ed bears the frustrations of the current situation well and you can’t help but admire his positivity. He is full of praise for the performance of the initial batch of Hydroliners, explaining they’re doing “a good job out on the road”. We were given a sample ride through Crawley’s impressive guided busway as well as around the town and to Gatwick Airport and back, and you can see why Ed is pleased. The acceleration is impressive as is the ride comfort. Passengers are well catered for and the buses are reliable.

But what is to come of the current impasse? Not least as Ed frustratingly explained there’s no shortage of green liquid hydrogen. “It’s available in Rotterdam now” he explained “and just needs bringing over to Immingham and then delivered to Crawley”. Everything is in place at the garage ready to receive it.

Instead, the company is having to accept uncertain deliveries of ‘non-green’ hydrogen gas into temporary storage and dispensing facilities which limit the scope of daily operations to around 10 buses a day. Although, at least they’re achieving buses on the road. It’s much more hit and miss in the West Midlands and Merseyside where double deck hydrogen buses have yet to achieve consistent availability for service.

The UK Government’s Hydrogen Strategy issued in August 2021 is full of ambitious goals for future production and use of the fuel throughout industry and even domestically including a target “for 5GW of low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030” but the section on storage fails to address the impasse Metrobus has found itself in, instead stating blandly “hydrogen’s ability to store energy for long periods of time and in large quantities is an important part of its strategic value to a fully decarbonised energy system, and we envisage hydrogen storage being a key part of future network infrastructure. Storage can support security of supply as production and use increase and become more spread over time and distance.”

Which is all good to know especially as the same UK Government is providing funding for the purchase of buses to run on hydrogen, which of course has to be stored in sufficient quantity at one time to ensure continuity of bus operation.

But, in the meantime the UK Government’s Health & Safety Executive (HSE) are properly following current UK Government guidelines concerning on-site storage of hydrogen, which some would observe are now outdated in view of the UK Government’s Strategy towards Net Zero.

The Metrobus storage facility is capable of holding 5,000kg of hydrogen. For that, it needs planning consent from Crawley Borough Council which in turn must seek advice from the HSE. Metrobus submitted its application in March 2022 expecting a 12 month delay and two years later, on 18th March 2024, the HSE finally determined its position concluding “the risks to the surrounding population arising from the proposed operation(s) are sufficiently high to justify advising against the granting of Hazardous Substances Consent on grounds of safety”.

Ed told us a particular concern is a relatively new secondary school sited close by on former industrial land.

Although why that raises a concern greater than, for example, Metrobus staff working in the adjacent offices and workshops or passengers on trains passing close by on the Brighton Main Line is a mystery.

Crawley Borough Council could still grant the application but that seems unlikely in view of the HSE’s unequivocal position. Indeed in its advice letter the HSE stated “if there are factors which weigh strongly in favour of the application, we suggest that it would be desirable for an Inspector from HSE to attend a meeting to explain the technical assessment and level of risk in more detail, before a final decision is made” as well as reminding the Council “where a hazardous substances authority is minded to grant consent against COMAH competent authority advice, it should notify the COMAH competent authority and allow 21 days for the competent authority to give further consideration. During that period the COMAH competent authority will consider whether to request the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to call-in the application for determination.” HSE is part of the COMAH competent authority.

I think we can take it the Council will not be granting the consent at this time. Unless circumstances change – and it seems that needs UK Government to redefine safe storage quantities of hydrogen and planning guidance – we are unlikely to see more than 10 of the current 20, and in due course, potentially 97 new hydrogen buses, on the road.

Which is a shame.

Roger French

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