TMB incorporates the first hydrogen bus into its fleet

Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB) has taken another step this week in its transition towards more sustainable mobility. The operator has received the first hydrogen fuel cell bus, manufactured by the Portuguese company CaetanoBus. The new bus will begin circulating in the city next year on a line yet to be defined. Before it can do so, it will have to pass the corresponding tests without passengers, as is done with any other model incorporated into the fleet.

It is the first of eight latest-generation vehicles that TMB will incorporate into the bus network, which are expected to arrive in Barcelona during 2022, a little later than initially planned. "It is a milestone for our company, for Barcelona and for the metropolitan area, which are becoming a reference in terms of innovative solutions for sustainable mobility," defends the president of TMB, Laia Bonet. The company plans to expand the number of hydrogen buses in its fleet in the coming years, according to Bonet.

These buses will be supplied with green hydrogen, with 20 kilos daily. 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 and only emits water vapor, with no CO₂ emissions.

The vehicles will fill their tanks at the public hydrogen station that Iberdrola has built in the Zona Franca, on a 5,000 square meter plot that it has leased from the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona (CZFB), near the TMB depots. At this hydrogen station, buses will be able to fill their tanks in a few minutes and will have a high autonomy in terms of time and kilometers.

Launched in one year, Iberdrola's plant began producing renewable hydrogen this very week. 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 results of the tender, TMB will pay Iberdrola for this supply an amount of approximately 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 plant in all of Spain to produce this renewable gas on a commercial basis.