New Hydrogen Powered Bus By Oil India Limited

State owned energy player, Oil India Limited (OIL) has announced that it has completed beta demonstration of its hydrogen powered bus developed by Ohm Cleantech. The innovation took place under ‘Startup Nurturing, Enabling and Handholding (SNEH)’ programme of OIL in Pune.

It’s a 9-meter bus empowered by a 60kW PEM Fuel Cell engine for electric drive. The official statement says that the novel bus will give a minimum range of 450 km and emit mere water in exhaust. OIL informed that the Green Hydrogen required for the bus will come from OIL’s Green Hydrogen plant in Jorhat, Assam. The oil major had recently commissioned a 99.999% pure green hydrogen production facility in Assam last April. The objective of OIL was to help the country pursue net zero emission and green hydrogen targets.

Also, NUVERA based out of the USA and h2e Power Systems from Pune are key partners to OHM along with EKA Mobility in developing the FCBus.

SC Mishra, Chairman & Managing Director (CMD), OIL said that this is a major step towards zero-emission mobility within OIL and also in the North-East India. With technology partners like Ohm Cleantech and h2e Power who can set up manufacturing plants for Electrolysers and Fuel Cells in the North East, OIL will play an important role in fulfilling India’s energy targets.

“We intend to deploy this bus for Green Kaziranga Tourism by the end of this year to welcome tourists to this zero-emission travel experience.” stated Mishra.

Bhavana Mayur, Director Ohm Cleantech, said, “We are humbled at the trust shown by OIL on us. What we have achieved today, in a record time, is a testimony of the strength in India’s startup ecosystem. Along with our partners h2e Power, Nuvera & EKA mobility we are confident of making Hydrogen mobility a reality.”

“We are proud to be associated with this project as it echo’s the vision of EKA to contribute to the reduction of emissions & provide a great driving experience to the passengers & the driver. We are focused on revolutionizing the public transport system in India and abroad. As one of the winners of the PLI scheme on e-Vehicles and components, our partnership with h2e and Ohm is significant as we will deliver state-of-art technology that is Made in India,” Sudhir Mehta, Chairman of EKA Mobility.