Indian Oil invites bids to procure 15 hydrogen fuel buses for Delhi-NCR

New Delhi: To give a fillip to India's push to usher in hydrogen-based mobility solutions ecosystem, Indian Oil, a Maharatna PSU under the Petroleum Ministry, is inviting bids to procure 15 Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) fuel cell buses which will run on Hydrogen. This project is the first-ever attempt in the country to address all the aspects of hydrogen-based mobility as the ultimate green option.

Indian Oil's Charman SM Vaidya said, "Indian Oil has been pioneering the hydrogen efforts in the country and this exercise is part of a bigger project which aims at addressing all aspects of the hydrogen value chain." Vaidya also said that this venture is being supported partially by the Hydrogen corpus fund of the Union Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas (MoPNG).

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Indian Oil's Director (R&D) SSV Ramakumar said that the fuel cell buses would be evaluated in collaboration with the selected OEM partner through a wide-scale field validation exercise in Delhi-NCR on a structured scientific format. One of the key ingredients of this project is that the fuel cell stack or system technology would be indigenously developed and manufactured in the spirit of 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat,' thus accelerating the creation of a local ecosystem to support further activities in the hydrogen energy domain. 

To facilitate the hydrogen supply for refuelling these buses, Indian Oil is also setting up demo units for different pathways to produce hydrogen of approximately 1 tonne per day production capacity, at its state-of-the-art research and development (R&D) centre in Faridabad.

What are PEM fuel cells?

Polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells, also called proton exchange membrane fuel cells, use a proton-conducting polymer membrane as the electrolyte. Hydrogen is typically used as the fuel. These cells operate at relatively low temperatures and can quickly vary their output to meet shifting power demands.

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