DALLAS - Van Hool, ABC Companies and a group of partners will unveil the world's newest hydrogen fuel-cell bus at the public transportation industry EXPO 2005 here later this month.

What distinguishes the new Van Hool A330 low-floor model from other fuel cell-powered buses is that it is a hybrid-electric fuel cell bus.

Fuel-cell buses are clean, quiet, electrically propelled vehicles that only emit water vapor from the tailpipe. The Van Hool design features a PureMotion 120-kW fuel cell system built by UTC Fuel Cells in Connecticut and a hybrid-electric drive system designed and installed by ISE Corporation of California.

The 120-kW UTC fuel cell system provides high fuel efficiency because it combines oxygen from the air with hydrogen, at low, near-ambient pressure.

"Because we do not require compressors, we greatly increase the fuel efficiency and the reliability of the system as a whole," said Jan Van Dokkum, president of UTC. "This design also makes the bus unbelievably quiet."

On-board batteries can store as much as 53 kWhr of electrical energy and release up to 95 kW of power. Regenerative braking augments the 120 kW of power available from the fuel cell.

"When we integrate hybrid-electric components with fuel-cell power, we get a vehicle that is quiet, fuel-efficient and zero-emission," said Dave Mazaika, president of ISE. "We've taken this bus up to 70 miles per hour on the freeway and we expect it to match or exceed the capabilities of a standard diesel bus."

Van Hool, UTC Fuel Cells, ISE and AC Transit, the public transit agency in Oakland, Calif., teamed up to develop an integrated fuel-cell, hybrid-drive system that would not compromise the low-floor Van Hool design that features three wide doors, large windows and air conditioning.

It will be announced during the APTA Expo that ABC Companies has been named the exclusive distributor of Van Hool transit buses in the U.S.

The bus will be on display at booth No. 5739 and unveiled at 11:30 a.m. Sept. 26.