Ad Astra Rocket Company
On August 3rd, the “Nyuti” bus arrived in Puerto Limón. This is the first in Central America bus that does not need gas to run, as it uses hydrogen as a fuel. This makes it a “zero emission” unit, ie it does not produce any gaseous pollutants.
Nine days later, on August 12th, the bus was driven from Limón to Guanacaste, in a tour of about nine hours that the company Ad Astra Rocket Company, leader of the project, described as “historical.”
“Nyuti” comes to the country from the hands of scientist Franklin Chang, who is positioning Costa Rica as a pioneer in environmentally friendly transportation, at a time when countries are trying to reduce their contribution of polluting gases.
This is the first hydrogen bus in Central America and Costa Rica is the second country in Latin America to try them, only after Brazil.
The unit is mobilized to Guanacaste, where it will offer regular service in the Liberian canton. The bus can travel 338 kilometers with 38 kilos of compressed hydrogen. It seats 35 passengers.
“Nyuti” arrives in Costa Rica at a time when the country is trying to reduce the amount of polluting gases generated, especially by the transportation sector.
According to data from the Ministry of the Environment and Energy (Mine), by the year 2015, 68.70% of the gases were emitted by the vehicle fleet, a problem that is aggravated if the average age of the vehicles is considered to be 15 years.
The hydrogen project began in 2012 through an alliance between the Costa Rican Oil Refinery (Recope) and Ad Astra.