Nanyang Technological University (NTU) today unveiled GreenLite, Singapore’s first truly green bus.
The first hydrogen-electric bus on Singapore roads, GreenLite is the result of a joint research project between NTU and Beijing’s Tsinghua University. As it does not run on fossil fuel, GreenLite has zero carbon emission and only emits clean water. Unlike conventional buses, GreenLite is not powered by a combustion engine, which makes travelling on it a pleasantly quiet ride.
The eco-friendly bus made its maiden journey today, ferrying guests and the media around NTU’s Yunnan Garden campus, which is also the official Youth Olympic Village when the inaugural games are held in Singapore next month. Launched by the Mayor of the Youth Olympic Village, Mr Teo Ser Luck who is also the Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports and Ministry of Transport, the hydrogen electric bus will transport athletes and officials within the Youth Olympic Village during the games.
NTU has introduced a slew of green features at the Youth Olympic Village and GreenLite is the centrepiece of these pro-environment features. With more than S$750 million in sustainability research, NTU has established itself as a leading player in environmental sustainability.
NTU’s President, Professor Su Guaning said: “Sustainability research and development is a key thrust for NTU. As one of the world’s largest engineering universities, we want to play a part in contributing to new engineering solutions that are not only cutting-edge, but also sustainable and friendly to the environment. Through GreenLite we hope to introduce clean technology in public transport to people in Singapore as well as the young athletes at the Youth Olympic Games”.
With professors and researchers from both NTU and Tsinghua University complementing each other’s expertise, the research project was completed within just seven months.
Said Professor Cen Zhangzhi, Vice Chairman of the University Council at Tsinghua University: “Tsinghua is committed to green education, green research and green service to benefit society at large. GreenLite is just one example of our efforts in these areas and we will continue to pursue more initiatives in this same direction.”
GreenLite is powered by two sources of energy – hydrogen and lithium-ion batteries. A fuel cell system housed on board the bus acts as an “energy converter” that converts hydrogen into electricity which powers the bus and charges the batteries when necessary.
Unlike other hydrogen fuel cell buses which typically have capacities of between 80kW to 150kW, this unique dual design combining a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell stack with lithium-ion batteries enables the bus to run on a fuel cell power capacity of only 40kW.
Check out an extensive video report by ChannelNewsAsia.com here.
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Augustus grew up with his Nintendo 8-bit and a 1984, 7,83MHz Macintosh. He worked for a media production company for a few years, did time in college and traveled the world. Augustus enjoys being online and loves surfing (waves) when it's freezing outside. Follow Augustus @ 
It is technological innovations such as this that is going to help us break our addiction to fossil fuels,
I agree.. can’t wait to see these technologies become mainstream and available to the large public.
Good direction.
Just these questions pop-up:
1. How, and how efficient is the Hydrogen created and w/o using fossil fuels?
2. How is dealt with the heat produced by PEM cells (efficiency is probably around 50%)?
3. How well,safe are the Lithium-Ion Polymer cells protected against overheating and from reaching the critical temperature (about 333 Kelvin? remember the exploding laptops)
Good questions Fred.
I’m heartily tired of hearing good people gushing forth about “clean” electricity. Out of sight doesn’t necessarily equate with clean and just because one can’t see the smoke doesn’t mean it’s not there.
For example here in Victoria, Australia, our state government PR Tools rabbit on about their “clean energy initiatives” whilst conveniently omitting to mention that the electricity that powers their “environmentally sensitive” electric cars and trains is generated in the dirtiest coal fired power stations in the southern hemisphere. Clean indeed….