IndianOil brings in hydrogen blends
New Delhi   25-Aug-2009
IndianOil has taken the first baby step for the country in the goal towards using hydrogen as an alternative fuel for running vehicles. The public sector oil giant has set up the first commercial filling station in the country at Dwarka in Delhi, which will make available hydrogen blended compressed natural gas (CNG) for three-wheelers and cars. The fuel will contain 18 per cent hydrogen and 82 per cent CNG. The 18 per cent blend has been chosen to make use of the easting CNG fuelling infrastructure to gain experience with storage and fuelling of hydrogen and to demonstrate its use for running vehicles. Since the safety norms for CNG blended with up to 20 per cent hydrogen are the same as those in existing storage facilities for CNG, this infrastructure can be used for the blended fuel as well. A senior IndianOil official said the company is also keen to set up a bigger filling station at the Commonwealth Games village to fuel the bus fleet that will ferry athletes and officials to the sports stadiums. However, this plan will depend on the Delhi government allotting land for the project. IndianOil officials said the project would enable the country to showcase its intent to switch to sustainable and cleaner next generation fuels, which will reduce carbon emissions. The filling station at Dwarka has been set up after four years of painstaking research at IndianOil's research and development (R&D) centre at Faridabad where a hydrogen dispensing station for undertaking field trials was set up in October, 2005. Major auto companies including Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bajaj Auto and Eicher Motors are participating in the project. IndianOil has also used a Maruti Swift car for carrying out its trials with the hydrogen-blended fuel. Three-wheelers, cars and mini-buses fuelled with the blended fuel were sent through extensive field trials at the R&D centre before the decision to set up the Dwarka project was cleared. The hydrogen fuelling facility set up at the IndianOil-R&D centre has been using blends ranging from five to 50 per cent of hydrogen. The Dwarka facility has an electrolyser for producing hydrogen and a compressor along with a buffer storage facility. The station has the capacity to fuel the equivalent of 15 three-wheelers a day. The Dwarka station will enable IndianOil to continue its R&D for use of hydrogen as a transport fuel. Mr. Anand Kumar, Director (R&D), IndianOil said, "The goal is to have at least one million vehicles running on hydrogen by 2020." He said hydrogen could be safely used directly as a fuel for producing mechanical or electrical energy through internal combustion engines, and also in fuel cells to generate electricity for stationary, portable and transport applications. "However, the supporting technologies related to its sustainable production, transportation, storage and use is still in the process of development. And it will take some more time before the era of hydrogen fuel could be usnered in," he added. Kumar said, "The national hydrogen energy road map has identified research, development and demonstration efforts to be undertaken in the country for bridging the technological gaps in different areas of hydrogen energy in its vision extending over the period till 2020."