Users who usually take the X1 express line, which connects Glòries and Francesc Macià with the city center, will start riding from this Thursday on the first hydrogen bus of the Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB) network. Once they get on it, they will not notice any difference compared to other days, but they will be in a vehicle that only emits water vapor when it moves around the city.
This new bus will be followed by seven more that TMB will incorporate into the bus network, which are expected to arrive in Barcelona throughout this year. Manufactured by the Portuguese company Caetano, they are standard type vehicles, 12 meters long, and with a light aluminum body with three doors. According to its strategic plan, the public transport operator plans to incorporate 508 clean energy buses by 2025, of which 233 will be electric and 46 will be hydrogen.
The first eight vehicles that will use hydrogen will be supplied with about 20 kilos daily at the plant that Ibedrola has built in the Zona Franca, near the depot where they will be based. In this hydrogen station, buses will be able to fill the tank in a few minutes and have a high autonomy in time and kilometers. The facility began producing hydrogen at the end of last year.
The plant is located on a 5,000 square meter plot. The company led by José Ignacio Sánchez Galán was the winner of the tender called by TMB for the supply of renewable hydrogen to its bus fleet. According to the result of the tender, TMB will pay Iberdrola for this supply an amount of about 14.3 million euros over the ten years of the contract. In addition to supplying fuel to TMB, Iberdrola will also provide it to other interested companies in the industrial park. This makes it the first facility in Spain to produce this renewable gas commercially.
Green hydrogen is produced at the Iberdrola plant. Compared to other types of hydrogen such as gray or blue, green is the most sustainable. This type of gas is produced by electrolysis from water and electricity from renewable sources. It generates 100% clean energy, with no CO₂ emissions.