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.