Hydrogen-CNG mix to fuel Games vehicles
New Delhi   27-Aug-2009
IndianOil has initiated talks with automobile companies, including Tata Motors Ashok Leyland, Mahindra & Mahindra and Eicher Motors, with the objective of putting on Delhi's roads buses, cars and three-wheelers that can run on a fuel mix of hydrogen and compressed natural gas (CNG) during the Commonwealth Games. IndianOil says this is a very clean fuel mix that will increase the energy efficiency by 15 per cent, and thus cut polluting emissions. According to Anand Kumar, research and development director in IndianOil, the blended fuel will have a hydrogen content of 17 to 18 per cent and cost 30 per cent more than the CNG rates prevailing in Delhi. At that hydrogen content, there will be no need for any change in the compressed cylinders that store fuel in vehicles that run only on CNG. IndianOil, which already has a pump station each in Dwarka and Faridabad selling the fuel mix, plans to have another near the Asiad Village, Mr. Sarthak Behuria, Chairman, IndianOil told Financial Chronicle on the sidelines of the world hydrogen technologies convention in the capital. The company's research and development department has tested the fuel mix in three-wheelers. These vehicles, using the mix, could be pressed into service to ferry passengers during the games. The company has so far spent over Rs 35 crore on research on the use of hydrogen as an alternative fuel. It intends spending Rs 200 crore more to optimise the use of hydrogen in a blend with other fuels. On another subject, Mr. Behuria said IndianOil was losing Rs 70 crore a day because of under- recoveries in auto fuels. For every litre of diesel sold the under-recovery is Rs 2, and on petrol Rs 4.20. Asked if an "increase in fuel prices was planned, R S Pandey, oil secretary, said, "Global crude prices are not comfortable. But there is no proposal to revise (fuel) prices." Calling for increased use of clean fuel, Pandey said the country imported 84 per cent of its crude oil requirement at a cost of $100 billion in 2008. "Replacing Oil with hydrogen will not only improve the environment but would also reduce government bills on crude oil," he said.