Clean, green machine

A carbon free minibus powered by three different green technologies – the first of its kind in Europe – was unveiled and officially launched in Wales last week.

The emission free tribrid bus is the result of an international collaboration, led and co-ordinated in Wales by Glamorgan University with funding from the Energy Savings Trust, sponsorship from the Welsh Assembly Government and the support of industry.

The bus was launched and publicly put through its paces for the first time at an Energy Savings Trust event to mark the successful completion of the project.

The minibus, which will be a commercially available prospect in the near future, benefits from three types of power delivery – hydrogen fuel cell, lead acid battery technology and ultra-capacitators.

The person responsible for driving forward the development was project manager Jonathan Williams, a senior lecturer at the Glamorgan University, who spent two and a half years perfecting it, based on his research into control of fuel cell systems.