The worldwide first fuel cell driven sweeper is being unveiled in Basel today. Called a CityCat H2 and powered by hydrogen, the vehicle will soon start its road tests, operating for several months in the 2000 watt pilot region of Basel as part of the “Experimental Space Mobility” project and in other Swiss towns.

The CityCat H2 has been developed by Empa (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research) and the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) together with municipal vehicle manufacturer Bucher Schörling, fuel cell system supplier Proton Motor Fuel Cell GmbH, electric drive manufacturer Brusa Elektronik AG and hydrogen fuelling station manufacturer and hydrogen supplier Messer (Schweiz) AG. Other contributors to the project are energy and environmental agencies of the canton of Basel-City and city of St. Gallen as well as Novatlantis, a network for sustainable development established by the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology.

Combining “clean” hydrogen and efficient fuel cell/electric drives is a very attractive solution for reasons of climate protection and air pollution control and is consequently being studied intensively by the automotive industry as an option for powering vehicles in the future. The aim of the CityCat H2 project is to move fuel cell technology from the laboratory to the road with a view to gaining hands-on experience with a potential application and to studying operating and ageing behaviour under a variety of service conditions.

The project vehicle is based on a Bucher Schörling CityCat 2020 compact sweeper and features a fuel cell hybrid drive. Its diesel engine was replaced by a hydrogen-driven fuel cell system because sweepers are very well suited to this type of power plant due to their constant driving characteristics. Alongside the operational aspects, a concept has also been developed to ensure safety in the event of failures, operating errors or accidents. Despite the added weight, the hydrogen-driven fuel cell system has significantly reduced the vehicle’s energy consumption. For this application in a municipal vehicle, the chosen fuel cell/battery hybrid solution is the most energy-efficient power option. Bucher Schörling carried out extensive packaging studies and improvements to enable these new technologies to be packed into the current design.

Apart from its ultimate purpose, street cleaning, the vehicle is also being used for research by various teams of experts during the 18-month on-road tests. While the technology is being tested, such as the component ageing resulting from on-road operation, the experts are also seeking to validate the longitudinal dynamics model developed for the layout of the drive components. At the same time, a working group is addressing the non-technical aspects of operating the vehicle and studying socio-economic issues, such as the acceptance of hydrogen as a vehicle fuel and considerations relating to economic viability in the marketplace.