| The Washoe County Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) in Reno, Nevada funded a feasibility study to develop an economically viable hydrogen infrastructure with net-zero emissions. The ultimate goal of the feasibility study is to convert a portion of their bus fleet to run on hydrogen fuel.; The work presented in this paper investigates the most fuel-efficient vehicle platforms in order to set the basis for the development of the hydrogen infrastructure. The requirement of net-zero hydrocarbon emissions limits the vehicles to operate on hydrogen fuel cells or hybrid hydrogen fuel cells. Buses with varying degrees of hybridization from one 17.8 kW*hr battery pack to five battery packs were compared to a straight fuel cell powered vehicle. A vehicle with an 80 kW fuel cell stack and four Zebra battery packs is demonstrated to offer the highest attainable fuel economy of those investigated. |
