C-ALPS to develop hydrogen-power coaches

The Centre for Advance Low Carbon Propulsion Systems (C-ALPS) at Coventry University has been selected to join the CoacHyfied consortium, an EU-funded project developing hydrogen-powered passenger coaches.

The €7 million CoacHyfied project brings together partners from higher education and engineering to develop technology that could save up to 1.4 million tonnes of CO2 from diesel-fueled coaches in the UK alone.

C-ALPS is responsible for the advanced thermal management system, which will look to increase fuel efficiency in novel ways, such as harnessing waste heat from the hydrogen fuel cell to power air conditioning in cabins. C-ALPS is currently investing £2 million in developing a hydrogen fuel cell development facility in Coventry.

CoacHyfied, led by engineering consultants and founding C-ALPS partner FEV, aims to present solutions to problems in the medium and long-distance public and commercial transportation sectors. It will accomplish this by developing and demonstrating six fuel cell coaches in two regions of Latvia and France over the course of two to three years.

There will be two types of coaches investigated. One will focus on OEM-based new-build fuel cell coaches, while the other will focus on retrofitting existing coaches to give environmentally outdated coach chassis a second life.