Development
is continuous  and ongoing...

Chassis and flywheel arrangement

Drive unit testing

EROS (pictured above centre) is the Ultra Light tram designed for the Bristol project.

A brief description follows:

General

The tram is designed for operation within city centres or in the suburbs, along reserved routes, existing railway track, streets with other traffic or through pedestrian areas. On-board power allows the tram to operate without overhead catenary which greatly reduces infrastructure costs and visual intrusion.  Capacity can be increased by connecting two vehicles.

Drive brake arrangement 

Body 

• 100% low floor,  400 mm above the top of the rail.

• Latest technologies used for its construction and production - closed profiles, glued foreparts, corrosion protection.

• 4 wheels, 2 axle both driven. 

Electrical equipment 

Electrical  

 Ultra Light Rail: the Fast Track to Fuel Cells

 Introducing Fuel Cells to the Commercial Public Transport Market

Fuel cells are now recognised as the key technology in the process of weaning the modern world from its dependence on fossil fuels and leading it into a new age of hydrogen energy. The principal obstacle still to be overcome is the high cost of fuel cells. In transport, e.g. one kilowatt from a fuel cell costs around $3,000, compared with $30 per kilowatt for an internal combustion engine. Somehow a reduction of two orders of magnitude has to be achieved if fuel cells are to compete with alternatives in the commercial market for transport. 

There are two complementary approaches to achieving this reduction. The first and most obvious is to increase the efficiency of the fuel cell in producing electricity from hydrogen. But producing electricity is not an end in itself. It is rather a means to enable us to achieve the end objective, which is to provide people with useful services such as heat, light and mobility. Increasing the energy efficiency of the system in which the fuel cell is used, as by increasing the efficiency of the fuel cell itself, can therefore reduce the cost of mobility. 

Ultra Light Rail is a transport system designed to eliminate the two orders of magnitude gap between the fuel cell and the internal combustion engine. The first step is to increase the efficiency of the vehicle system in which the fuel cell is used. This can be done in a number of ways but the most dramatic “step change” in energy efficiency can be achieved by using a vehicle running with steel wheels on steel rails. This immediately reduces the energy requirement by a factor of three, since the lower rolling resistance allows a tram to use only one third of the energy required by a similar sized bus. 

Further cost reductions in the vehicle system can be achieved by introducing an on-board energy storage system in a hybrid electric drive train, similar, in principle, to that used in the Toyota Prius and other cars and even in some buses. This makes possible a lower rating for the prime on-board power source which is required only to run at its optimum level, in order to keep the energy storage system topped up. It also allows for the energy from braking to be recaptured and used, rather than dissipated in heat vented to the atmosphere. Still more efficiency can be introduced by integrating the electric motors into the wheels. The overall weight of the vehicle can be reduced by each of these innovations whilst the body itself can be manufactured from carbon fibre composite materials in a monocoque form. The whole process, using standard proven technology, creates a spiralling cost reduction, resulting from each innovative feature.    

Using only some of these features, recent practical test work carried out by Sustraco Ltd, with support from a Carbon Trust grant, has shown that a 25-kilowatt fuel cell would be sufficient to power a light tram with similar capacity to the fuel cell buses currently running in London under the EU’s CUTE programme. These buses are doing an invaluable job in demonstrating to the public that fuel cells are no different to internal combustion engines in performance and safety. However, the buses themselves are grossly inefficient in commercial terms, costing, as they do, some five times as much as a similar diesel bus and requiring 250 kilowatts fuel cell to operate them. The next logical step in commercialising the operation of fuel cell powered public transport vehicles must therefore be to integrate the fuel cell into an energy efficient tram. This will eliminate one order of magnitude in the cost differential.

Eliminating the second order of magnitude involves engineering down the cost of the transport system within which the vehicle operates.

Installing an on-board power source allows the ULR system to eliminate continuous overhead electrification and the insulation that goes with it. The reduced weight of the tram means that light rail can be used, which is easy and relatively cheap to install and maintain.  

ULR is designed to be the natural, zero-emission, next-generation successor to the diesel bus as fossil fuels are phased out. The passenger capacity of the trams is therefore designed to be similar to the standard city buses currently in operation all over the world. Rather than increase the size, weight and obtrusiveness of the public transport vehicle it is often preferable to use vehicles with a passenger capacity of around 100 people, plus or minus 50%. As pedestrianised areas are extended in city centres, less obtrusive, pedestrian-friendly trams will increasingly be in demand.

All these features, which differentiate ULR from LRT, result in massive savings in infrastructure costs. This eliminates the second order of magnitude and delivers a highly energy efficient public transport system which is non-polluting, popular and low-cost, with essential flexibility in carrying capacity.

ULR is designed to bridge the current cost gap between internal combustion engines and fuel cells by using standard production fuel cells more efficiently, rather than waiting for fuel cell prices to come down.  However, as they do come down, ULR systems will simply become even more economical.

How a fuel cell works:-

click on the image to see a larger version.

For more information on fuel cells visit the following site:- www.fuelcellmarkets.com

Other renewable fuels include:-

The  first train to run on Biogas

For more details click on the image.

For more details regarding Biogas visit the following site:- www.aggrowgas.eu

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