Athletes in town for the coming Youth Olympic Games (YOG) next month will get to ride in Singapore's first fuel-cell vehicle - a hydrogen-electric hybrid bus in the Olympic Village.

According to local newspaper The Straits Times on Monday, the bus, developed by engineers from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and China's Tsinghua University, will be used to ferry participants along the steep slopes of the NTU campus, where the Youth Olympic Village is located.

The 72-passenger, single-deck vehicle is likely to be Singapore's first fuel-cell vehicle in practical use, though a Singapore team in last year's Shell Eco-marathon car race in Germany drove a hydrogen fuel-cell 484 km on a single litre of fuel.

By using hydrogen, the bus emits no carbon dioxide, or sulphur dioxide, which contribute to acid rain. In comparison, a normal diesel bus produces 1.39 kg of carbon dioxide per kilometer.

During the YOG, the bus will run modest trips - a total of 80 km a day, four days a week.