Except for its paint job, green to symbolize environmental friendliness, the bus looked ordinary enough as it bumped along a suburban Shanghai street late one recent morning. But it was strangely quiet. Only a distant hum accompanied the rattles and passengers’ conversations.
The hum came from a hydrogen fuel cell providing clean, renewable energy to the demonstration vehicle, manufactured by Shen-Li High Tech Co. Ltd., a private Shanghai company that set out to make its fortune from hydrogen power for buses, taxis and generators in the giant Chinese market.
Shen-Li, launched here by a Clemson University-trained engineer, Hu Liqing, found encouragement in a campaign by the Chinese Communist Party to promote bold departures such as hydrogen power. [Full Text]