Hydrogen to boost CNG vehicles from 2007

Delhi, the ?CNG capital of India?, will see the launch of the next-generation, zero-emission hydrogen fuel early next year. The process will start by blending hydrogen with CNG to reduce nitrogen oxide and particulate-matter emission from vehicles by about half.

Published on: Nov 27, 2006, 15:25:00 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Delhi, the ‘CNG capital of India’, will see the launch of the next-generation, zero-emission hydrogen fuel early next year. The process will start by blending hydrogen with CNG to reduce nitrogen oxide and particulate-matter emission from vehicles by about half.

“Hydrogen is the cleanest among all available fuels, including bio-fuels. Its burning emits no carbon and the final result is water,” said Dr S.K. Chopra, special secretary, Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy.

The country’s first hydrogen-filling station will begin functioning at the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC)-owned petrol pump near Nigambodh Ghat.

“By next year, a dispenser each for filling pure hydrogen and hydrogen mixed with CNG will be available in Delhi,” said Dr R.K. Malhotra, general manager, R&D, IOC. The cost -- Rs 5 crore -- will be shared by the IOC and the ministry. The station will be able to provide fuel to about 1,000 vehicles a day.

Hydrogen as a fuel has been introduced in a handful of other countries already. There are 50 hydrogen-filling stations in the United States.

The economics of using hydrogen fuel are, however, a different matter. Hydrogen will be four times as costly as CNG, though no doubt it will have three times more energy. Only a few modifications are required for a CNG vehicle to start using CNG laced with 10 per cent hydrogen.

But significant changes in the engine will be mandatory for those vehicles using fuel where the blending is over 10 per cent. By early 2007, seven vehicle models —- Tata Indica, a Tata bus, Bajaj three-wheelers, an Ashok Leyland mini bus, an Eicher mini bus, Mahindra three-wheelers and the Mahindra Utility — are expected to be ready with modified engines which can run on up to a maximum of 30 per cent hydrogen blend.

Banaras Hindu University has already developed modified two-wheeler and three-wheeler engines that are compatible with a CNG-hydrogen mix. The Hosiarpur-based International Cars and Motors Limited has bought the right to use these engines in three-wheelers.

Malhotra said the initial manufacturing cost of hydrogen was high because of the cost of technology involved. “We are confident that the prices will fall once the market for hydrogen gathers momentum,” he said. chetan@hindustantimes.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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