The Netherlands Places Order for 75 Natural Gas Powered Daimler Buses

Daimler Buses has once again won two contracts, and as a result it will deliver a total of 425 buses to the Netherlands by December. The biggest contract from the Netherlands to date is for 350 Mercedes-Benz urban and intercity buses, which were ordered by Qbuzz, a private bus operator with headquarters in Amersfoort. The vehicles will be employed in the provinces of Drenthe and Groningen. The second major contract is for 75 natural gas-powered Mercedes-Benz urban buses, which were ordered by Connexxion, the Netherlands’ largest public transport company, with headquarters in Hilversum. The environmentally friendly low-emission natural gas buses will be employed in the Arnhem-Nijmegen region.

“We’re very happy about the two big orders from the Netherlands,” says Hartmut Schick, head of Daimler Buses. “They show that our high-quality and environmentally friendly buses are also successful in economically challenging times. As a result, we will be able to fully utilize the production capacity of our European plants until the end of the year.”


Daimler Buses will manufacture Mercedes-Benz brand urban and intercity buses for the two customers. Qbuzz has ordered Citaro LE and Citaro NF solo and articulated urban buses with a low-floor design. The Citaro LE and NF solo vehicles are 12 meters long, while the Citaro NF articulated vehicles are 18 meters long, offering seating for up to 53 passengers. The economical low-emission buses are equipped with the pioneering Mercedes-Benz BlueTec SCR diesel technology and meet the Euro 5 and EEV (Enhanced Environmentally Friendly Vehicle) emissions limits. Qbuzz has also ordered Mercedes-Benz Integro intercity buses, which are 12 meters long and offer seating for 47 passengers. The Mercedes-Benz Integro is an appealing and profitable solution for the bus operator, thanks to the low operating costs, high quality standards, great versatility, and long service life of the vehicle and its components. The whole contract is being financed through Daimler Financial Services Netherlands, while the EvoBus Service partner Wensink will repair and maintain the vehicles.

The other customer, Connexxion, is also focusing on environmental friendliness with its order of 75 natural gas-powered Mercedes-Benz Citaro CNG urban buses. Daimler Buses will be delivering two variants of the Citaro CNG: a solo bus measuring 12 meters and an articulated bus measuring 18 meters. The solo vehicle’s engine has an output of 185 kW (252 hp), while the articulated bus is equipped with a drive generating 240 kW (326 hp). The contract for 75 vehicles consists of 69 solo buses and six articulated buses, all of which generate very low emissions and meet the EEV standard. In total, more than 1,200 Mercedes-Benz Citaro CNG buses are in use by customers
The Netherlands Places Order for 75 Natural Gas Powered Daimler Buses

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M.I.T. develops cleaner natural gas power

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a new type of natural gas electric power plant with zero carbon dioxide emissions.

Postdoctoral associate Thomas Adams and Lammot du Pont Professor of Chemical Engineering Paul I. Barton are proposing a system that uses solid-oxide fuel cells to produce power from fuel without burning it.

The system would not require any new technologies but would combine existing components in a new configuration for which they have applied for a patent.

The system would run on natural gas that is considered more environmentally friendly that coal or oil. Presently, natural gas power plants produce an average of 1,235 pounds of carbon dioxide for every megawatt-hour of electricity produced, one third the emissions from coal power plants.

The system proposed by Mr. Adams and Mr. Barton would not emit any carbon dioxide into the air or other gases believed responsible for global warming, but would instead produce a stream of mostly pure carbon dioxide.

This stream could be harnessed and stored underground relatively easily, a process known as carbon capture and sequestration (C.C.S.). One additional advantage of the proposed system is that, unlike a conventional natural gas plant with C.C.S. that would consume significant amounts of water, the fuel-cell based system actually produces clean water that could easily be treated to provide potable water as a side benefit, Mr. Adams says.

Carbon pricing needed
The new system could produce power at cost comparable to or less than conventional natural-gas plants and even to coal-burning plants. However, the researchers said that this can only come about if and when a price is set on the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

Carbon pricing attempts to take into account the true price exacted on the environment by greenhouse gas emission.

Mr. Adams explained that without costs imposed on carbon emissions, the cheapest fuel will always be pulverized coal. But as soon as there is some form of carbon pricing, their system will have the lowest price option as long as the pricing is more than about $15 per metric ton of emitted carbon dioxide.

Natural gas already accounts for 22 percent of all United States electricity production, and that percentage is likely to rise in coming years if carbon prices are put into effect.

For these and other reasons, a system that can produce electricity from natural gas at a competitive price with zero greenhouse gas emissions could prove to be an attractive alternative to conventional power plants that use fossil fuels.

M.I.T. develops cleaner natural gas power

0 comments RSS Posted by Krasugir & Co at 3:26 AM