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  • Come along for a ride on a new kind of bus. It's got a unique internal combustion engine,

  • powered by hydrogen.

  • This bus, and a similar one, shuttles employees and visitors daily around the grounds of two

  • national laboratories in northern California: Lawrence Livermore and Sandia.

  • They're located across the street from each other in Livermore, about an hour east of

  • San Francisco.

  • The environmental advantages of hydrogen are crucial:

  • When hydrogen is used as a fuel in the internal combustion engine, the greenhouse gas emissions

  • are far lower than a conventional gasoline-powered vehicle.

  • The only emissions coming out of the tailpipe are water vapor and very low-levels of criteria

  • pollutants such as oxides of nitrogen; below super-ultra-low emission vehicle standards;

  • these are very clean vehicles for the environment.

  • It's all part of a Department of Energy initiative.

  • What we are trying to do is to get hydrogen vehicles and the refueling infrastructure

  • introduced to the public, so the public can become aware of the environmental and energy

  • security advantages of hydrogen as a transportation fuel.

  • Hydrogen buses like these, leased from Ford Motor Company -- are also highly fuel-efficient

  • -- up to 25-percent more efficient than their gasoline-fueled equivalents.

  • Here at Livermore, our buses, our taxis, cycle our site constantly, all day long and we're

  • putting hundreds of miles a week on these vehicles. We'll probably, in terms of mileage;

  • we're probably the most extensive project that's ongoing now in the DOE program.

  • And so the data that we will be gathering will be shared with the automobile manufacturers,

  • with Ford, and also with the hydrogen producer, in our case, it's Air Products, uh, is providing

  • a refueling site here at Livermore.

  • Refueling a hydrogen vehicle is far different than filling up a gasoline-powered car.

  • This is the Air Products refueling station, used by the Lab's two buses and a hydrogen-powered

  • Prius.

  • It's all computerized, but instead of gallons, units of hydrogen are measured in kilograms.

  • There are also safety procedures that need to be followed.

  • This is telling me now that I need to ground the trailer and the shuttle bus.

  • There's no gas cap to remove. Instead, there's a valve that must be opened.

  • What I need to do next is to release the red button here so that I can begin the fueling

  • process by releasing the solenoid. I press the red button.

  • The flashing light lets me know the solenoid has been released so the fuel can start to

  • be released to the vehicle.

  • OK, now I'm attaching the fueling nozzle to the refueling receptacle and locking it in

  • place [click] and the fueling process has begun.

  • Under the hood, you can't see much difference in a hydrogen-powered engine. These buses

  • have a 6.8-liter supercharged Triton V-10 engine, with just a few modifications, such

  • as alternate materials for valves and other parts that might become brittle when exposed to hydrogen.

  • The buses, and the two labs' other hydrogen technologies were introduced to the public

  • at a noontime ceremony in downtown Livermore.

  • As a national security lab, we think very broadly of national security, including energy

  • security, and this is really important, this hydrogen fuel, to energy security.

  • This can be produced using entirely domestic resources.

  • Using hydrogen technologies like these hydrogen buses is a great way to bring the technology

  • into the community and to provide outreach and education, especially on ways to reduce

  • our dependence on imported oil and reduce greenhouse gases and air pollution.

  • This project shows the firm commitment of Lawrence Livermore, Sandia, AirProducts, and

  • Ford to the advancement of clean energy technologies in their communities.

  • You're truly leaders in launching this green economy and behalf of DOE, I applaud you for your efforts.

  • It will obviously take many more years before alternative clean-energy vehicles outnumber

  • those powered by gasoline. But slowly, with many more scientific advances along the way,

  • it seems a sure bet that there will be hybrids, all-electric, and hydrogen in our nation's

  • future transportation system.

Come along for a ride on a new kind of bus. It's got a unique internal combustion engine,

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