The U.S. Dept. of Transportation (DOT) is providing a $2.6-million grant to UTC Fuel Cells (UTCFC) and the Northeast Advanced Vehicle Consortium (NAVC) to design a heavy-duty fuel cell engine for buses. The prototype would also be used in trucks.
South Windsor, CT-based UTCFC, a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp., is putting $2 million of its own funds into the project, which aims to develop a 200 kilowatt hydrogen-fueled ambient-pressure fuel cell engine.
Ambient-pressure fuel cells better manage the water produced by the fuel cell combustion process, UTCFC said. The process converts hydrogen and oxygen into electricity for vehicle power, with water the only byproduct.
