Road trials of hydrogen blended CNG vehicles

SIAM to start road trials of hydrogen blended CNG vehicles in 2 months


The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers Association will start pilot tests of hydrogen blended compressed natural gas fuel vehicles in one to two months.Tata Motors, Mahindra, Ashok Leyland, Bajaj and Eicher commercial vehicles will be tested on the Delhi-Faridabad road across a stretch of 50,000 km. IndianOil has set up a hydrogen station to conduct the trial tests."Our pilot project with IndianOil to test hydrogen blend CNG vehicles is on track.


We expect the trials to begin in a month or two," Mr. Dilip Chenoy, Director-General, SIAM, said on the sidelines of a natural gas vehicles event here.Trying combinationsSIAM has completed the initial trials on Ashok Leyland, Mahindra and Bajaj commercial vehicles, to run on a hydrogen blended CNG fuel. The industry association indicated that in one or two months, it was likely to finish the initial trials of varying blends of hydrogen and CNG even for Tata Motor's light commercial vehicle and Eicher.In the first phase, SIAM has tested the feasibility of hydrogen with CNG from 5 per cent to 30 per cent. Based on the pilot trials that will begin shortly, auto companies will recommend the uniform standard that can be implemented for blending hydrogen."After the pilot tests on road, we will be able to know the level of hydrogen that can be blended on all vehicles to give optimum performance," said a senior official at SIAM who heads technical policy issues.There are around 7 lakh vehicles that run on CNG and 400 retail outlets to cater to them. The Chairman of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board, Mr. L. Mansingh, said there will be 84 geographical areas with CNG outlets by 2011."Of this, the number of cities where the availability of CNG would be increased will touch 64. In the remaining 22 cities it will be operational. By 2013, the coverage of cities under CNG will go up to 125 cities and by 2018, we expect the number to double."

By Priyanka Vyas, Business Line, New Delhi, March 25, 2009