Georgetown University has been at the forefront of the development of transportation fuel cells for over 15 years. The key objectives of GU's Advanced Vehicle program are to support the development of fuel cell technology and assist industry in commercialization of fuel cells for transit applications.
Fuel cells produce electricity by electrochemically combining hydrogen and oxygen into water.
On the Georgetown buses, the hydrogen is extracted from liquid methanol and the oxygen is from ambient air. Fuel cells have a number of advantages over conventional propulsion systems - they are more efficient, quieter, and have very low emissions . In addition, the use of methanol as a fuel can reduce dependence on imported oil, since methanol can be domestically produced from renewable resources. For further information, see our Program Details page. Advanced Vehicle Development at Georgetown began in 1983, with feasibility studies for fuel cell powered transit buses conducted with Los Alamos National Laboratory.