DOE Funding Effort to
Create Clean, Safe School Bus

     The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is funding a project to develop an inherently safe, commercially competitive, alternative fuel school bus that will meet future low emissions and safety standards for the year 2000 and provide energy efficiency equivalents resembling conventional fuels (on a heating value basis).
     The National RenewableEnergy Laboratory (NREL) will manage the project, and is now evaluating proposals submitted by companies hoping to develop these buses.
     Under NREL's request for proposal, buses may be designed to run on compressed natural gas, liquefied natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, methanol, ethanol, biodiesel, or hydrogen. However, most of the proposals received by NREL are for natural gas designs.
     The buses must have ultra-low emissions and must meet all applicable school bus safety standards, such as the National Highway Safety Transportation Administration's proposed Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard Number 303. Although the safety standards have not yet been written, the bus developed for this project must meet those standards as they come into effect sometime this year.
     The bus also must be "commercially competitive," meaning that, independent of fuel cost, the vehicle must meet technical requirements for competitive performance, refueling times, vehicle range, driveability, durability, fuel handling, safety, and overall emissions performance.
     The project is expected to be a 2- to 3-year effort, completed in four phases:

• systems design;

• prototype hardware assembly and testing;

• full-scale systems testing and integration;

• a 10,000-mile vehicle demonstration.

     Although a number of alternative fuel buses are already in service, the new bus will be an innovative design. For example, the fuel tanks and system will be placed in the vehicle for maximum safety. The body of the bus will be designed to accommodate this configuration, rather than placing the tanks and fuel system in to fit an existing vehicle structure. "We will be using existing components but modifying their position in a design to maximize safety," says NREL Project Manager Chris Colucci.
     While crash tests will not be required, the vehicle designer must do a complete engineering analysis on the vehicle's "crashworthiness." "The objective of this effort is to demonstrate that alternative fuels can be used in a centrally fueled bus fleet, and have safe operations for school children," says Colucci.