Only a year and a half after it was scheduled to open, the first hydrogen-dispensing station in India should be up and running this fall. The hydrogen will be supplied by Eden Energy Ltd, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Hythane Company LLC. The station will be located in "the heart of Delhi at one of India's busiest natural gas fuelling stations," according to Gasworld. Alongside the hydrogen, Eden Energy will sell Hythane, that patented blend of hydrogen and natural gas.

There's a big push in India to move a lot of vehicles (at least 20 percent is the official goal) to hydrogen or hydrogen-based fuels by 2020. As we said earlier today, the more gasoline vehicles there are in India, the less fuel there is for the rest of the world. Moving a million or more vehicles in India from hydrocarbons to hydrogen eases the oil crunch for others. Is this a good thing?

Related:

• San Francisco airport shuttles will run on Hythane, a hydrogen and natural gas blend
• Hydrogen station opening in Delhi, India to dispense H2/natural gas blend

[Source: Gasworld]

According to the AutoblogGreen search box, it's been over a year since we last mentioned hythane. I guess we can say with some certainty that hythane is not the green fuel of choice these days. What hythane is is a blend of hydrogen and natural gas, so I'm certain that there is a portion of our readership that will claim this fuel isn't green at all. Fair enough. Still, this cleaner-burning version of natural gas for vehicles has been used for many years around the world.

In any case the news today is that the San Francisco International Airport will use a new grant worth almost $500,000 to convert 14 ground shuttles to run on hythane. The grant comes from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and will be used to "facilitate the replacement of existing gasoline-powered and diesel-powered airport shuttles with Hythane(R) versions of the shuttles which are expected to dramatically decrease emissions. Specifically, the Hythane(R) shuttles are expected to reduce nitrous oxides by 56%, non-methane hydrocarbons by 30%, and carbon dioxide by 40% over the existing versions. The Hythane(R) model is also expected to outperform comparable natural gas shuttles by emitting 30% less hydrocarbons and 20% less carbon dioxide."

Hythane is a patented fuel, and the Hythane trademark is owned by Brehon Energy PLC. The Hythane Company, LLC, which is based in Denver, is responsible for integrating hythane technology with existing natural gas fueling stations.

[Source: Hythane Company]

Several years ago, the Indian supreme court mandated that all public vehicles in Delhi, should be converted to run on compressed natural gas (CNG) as means to fight the rising pollution levels. In turn all of the government operated buses, motorized rickshaws, taxis and other vehicles as well as many private vehicles have been converted to CNG. There are now hundreds of CNG filling stations in the capital city. The city of Delhi now has the largest CNG fleet in the world.

The next step is to add hydrogen into the mix. Early in 2007 a station will begin offering Hythane (hydrogen + methane, the main component of natural gas). Initially they will be using a mix of 10 percent hydrogen/90 percent CNG as well as offering straight hydrogen for experimental vehicles that can operate on it. The hydrogen blend will reduce NOx and particulate emissions by about 50 percent. All the CNG equipped vehicles are able to operate on the 10 percent hydrogen mix without further modification. Higher percentage mixes require some additional modification, and vehicles equipped to handle up to 30 percent hydrogen will start entering service in 2007. The hydrogen is four times the cost of CNG but has three times the specific energy, so the improved mileage should mitigate most of the cost.

[Source: Hindustan Times, tip from Manu Sharma ]

Volvo announced last week a prototype flexible fuel engine that can burn five different types of fuel: E85, methane (made from either natural gas or plant sources, so Volvo is counting this as two fuels), regular petrol gasoline or hythane, (which is 10 percent hydrogen and 90 percent methane). The vehicle, called the Multi-Fuel, was unveiled at the Michelin Challenge Bibendum, the "international sustainable mobility event".

Volvo claims the Multi-Fuel "meets virtually all known emission standards in the world, including the proposed Euro 5. Running on pure renewable fuels like hydrogen, biomethane and bioethanol means negligible net contribution of carbon dioxide to the greenhouse effect." Automotto and Babez have the press release.

[Source: Automotto.org, Hat Tip to Zodingi and Dave]