Following my recent post about the UK’s first hydrogen fuel station, news comes that a much larger station is planned for London by 2010 to power a fleet of ten hydrogen buses.

Interestingly, five of the buses will be powered by internal combustion engines burning hydrogen while the other five will use a fuel cell/electric motor system.

The fuel station will be provided by Air Products – the same company that is providing the University of Birmingham’s hydrogen fuel station.

At the other end of the market (size-wise), PSA (makers of Peugeot, Citroen and Fiat vans) have unveiled an experimental hydrogen fuel cell-powered electric version of the ever-popular Peugeot Partner small van. The electric motor is powered by a 10kW fuel cell that’s been specifically designed for small van use and fits under the bonnet, giving the van a 300km range.

The hydrogen itself is stored in an ‘exchangeable rack’ – meaning that it can be swapped for a new, pre-filled rack if a refuelling facility isn’t available. This could be a useful feature given how few hydrogen fuel stations are likely to be available for the next few years.

Impressively, the vehicle can also be started at temperatures down to -20C – so cold starts should never be a problem in the UK or most of Europe.

(Thanks to Just-Autos.com for this story.)