By year-end, at least five vehicles already sitting in an Indian Oil Corporation R&D centre will start plying on CNG blended with 10% hydrogen (HCNG) on Delhi’s roads. This blend will facilitate the entry of a fuel source that has become the veritable Holy Grail in the quest of a green, zero-emission fuel.

Hydrogen is widely accepted as the fuel of the future — the US government’s annual spend on hydrogen research is $1.2 billion to help reduce its dependence on foreign oil as well as emission of greenhouse gases.

Last November, the Central government unveiled a roadmap prepared by the Hydrogen Energy Board, headed by Ratan Tata, to put 1 million hydrogen-fuelled vehicles on the country’s roads by 2020 through public-private initiatives.

IOC pledged Rs 100 crore to a hydrogen fuel initiative to develop the technology for commercially viable hydrogen-powered fuel cells to run cars, trucks, homes. A year later, they have come out with two three-wheelers by Mahindra and Mahindra and Bajaj, one Ambassador car and two mini buses by Eicher and Tata that can run on this blend.

These vehicles are already running in the IOC research campus in Faridabad and will start operating once the first hydrogen dispenser comes up at Delhi’s Lodhi Road costing Rs 5 crore.

It will dispense both the blend and pure hydrogen, preparing for a future when vehicles running on pure hydrogen make their shift from research labs to Delhi roads.

The 10% blend will allow the same internal combustion CNG engine to work without any changes, thus reducing the otherwise prohibitive technological cost. Research has shown that the blend not only improves the thermal efficiency of the fuel, it has another benefit: It reduces pollutant NOX (oxides of nitrogen) by 30-40%, a major concern with CNG vehicles.

“Delhi has an advantage over other cities. It has the largest fleet of CNG vehicles which are already working with an internal combustion engine. No major modifications are required for the 10% blend and the hydrogen too can be stored in the same CNG cylinder,’’ said R K Malhotra, general manager, (R&D) for IOC. “We have to decide whether we want hydrogen and whether the cost is worth the benefit,” said Kirit Parekh, member, Planning Commission, speaking at a CII meet on alternate fuels today. He has reason for concern. For, HCNG is a small step — the goal being fuel cells which allow hydrogen to be used in pure form. As of now, the cost of these cells makes a car four times more expensive than one running on petrol.

There are two major concerns — linked to cost — which scientists are grappling with. How will it be produced and which is the best way of storing it?

If it cannot be produced from a renewable source like water of biowaste, it does not solve the basic problem — that of dependence on hydrocarbons. In India, hydrogen is generated as a by-product in many industries like fertiliser and chlor-alkali plants.

The Pilot

• First station will dispense HCNG (10% hydrogen, 90% CNG) to five R&D vehicles

• HCNG cuts CNG’s nitrogen oxide pollutants by 30-40%

• For a 10% blend, only minor tweaks to engine required

How Expensive

• Cost being worked out

• 100% hydrogen as fuel (ideal, since the only byproduct is water) currently being used in some countries in Toyota, BMW, Ford vehicles. Cost prohibitive: at least four times that of a luxury car

• Reason: fuel cells which store hydrogen expensive technology

The Next Steps

• Find a renewable source for hydrogen (biomass or water)

• Work on storage to allow higher hydrogen levels

• Auto industry to suitably adapt

• Funding is the key issue

Elsewhere

• Sweden runs a bus fleet on a blend

• Iceland has three hydrogen buses running on an experimental and operational basis.

• China announced 10 hydrogen-filling stations for a fleet of 100 buses and 1000 fuel cell cars by 2010.