End of the year, India’s first hydrogen-dispensing gas station will open in Delhi

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.

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...