The Perth-based Eden Energy Ltd. has announced the successful testing of a production-ready 6-litre engine that will enable India’s largest bus manufacturer, Ashok Leyland, to power buses with Eden’s low-emission Hythane blend of hydrogen-enriched natural gas.
The revolutionary 2010 H06B CNG engine, developed by Eden’s wholly-owned US subsidiary, Hythane Company, at Ashok Leyland’s Hosur laboratory in India, was initially designed to meet the country’s current Bharat IV (Euro IV) mandatory emissions targets.
Significantly, the results from last month’s calibrated control system and exhaust catalyst for the naturally-aspirated engine have revealed that it will ultimately enable India’s buses to operate at a level of emissions that meet the most stringent standards of future.
Mr. Justin Fulton, Hythane Company’s Director of Engine and Fuel Systems, said the results would comply with the next generation of Bharat V (Euro V) requirements, ensuring a long production life for the H06 engine.
Over the European Transient Cycle (ETC), an engine dynamometer test that simulates realworld driving conditions for heavy duty vehicles, the Hythane engine tests yielded improvements relative to the natural gas baseline: oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions reduced by 16.6 per cent; total hydrocarbon (THC) emissions reduced by 15.1 per cent, including a non-methane hydrocarbon (NMHC) reduction of 66.6 per cent; carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions cut by 6.2 per cent; and fuel efficiency improvement of 6.5 per cent based on fuel combustion energy.
Eden Energy will receive royalties from both Ashok Leyland and the engine control system provider for all Hythane-fuelled engine sales.
Mr. Fulton observed: “Although the use of natural gas buses has reduced pollution over the past 5 to 10 years in cities like Delhi and Mumbai, NOx and smog continue to be a serious health problem. The use of Hythane fuel in the nation’s municipal buses will make a significant reduction in these pollutants, without any power or performance penalties, and without expensive engine or vehicle add-on equipment”.
It is significant that Hythane fuel reduces CO2 emissions with regard to global warming. Also, the THC emissions from natural gas are almost all methane, a greenhouse gas that is over 20 times more potent than CO2. With a renewable hydrogen feedstock for the Hythane fuel blend, around seven tonnes of CO2-equivalent greenhouse gas could be saved annually for each bus.”
According to him, the real-world driving cycle fuel efficiency improvement with Hythane fuel could provide up to five per cent lower operating costs for bus operators with industrial-scale hydrogen production sources for vehicle fuel.
“Even with small on-site hydrogen production at each refuelling station, the efficiency increase with Hythane at least covers the extra cost of the hydrogen in the fuel blend, so the emissions improvements are free.”
Ashok Leyland will soon release turbo-charged versions of the H06 engine, and the control system strategies used for these engines will allow it to take advantage of hydrogen’s unique combustion properties above and beyond the improvements seen in the base CNG/Hythane engine.
Preliminary investigations on the new engines began in April after the base engine production calibration work, and production-intent optimisation by Hythane Company and Ashok Leyland will continue this year.
The Hythane Company President, Mr. Roger Marmaro, said: “While pure-hydrogen engine and fuel cell technology continues to advance, the immediate availability and leveraged benefits of hydrogen natural gas fuel blends will allow Hythane engines to play the most significant role in meeting India’s Vision 2020 goals and promoting the development of a new hydrogen economy.”
India joined the International Partnership for the Hydrogen Economy (IPHE) as a founding member in 2003. By 2006, a national hydrogen energy roadmap was created to plan for a gradual, practical transition to hydrogen energy and infrastructure, including power generation and transport applications. The Roadmap’s Vision 2020, through the Green Initiatives for Transport (GIFT), calls for one million vehicles to be operating on hydrogen fuels by 2020.
The release of the first Hythane engine produced in India will precede the setting up of the country’s first large-scale refuelling station for hydrogen-enriched natural gas, as previously announced by Eden Energy. This station, to be constructed by the end of the year, will refuel 50 to 70 buses in Mumbai.
In addition to the Ashok Leyland buses, another major Indian bus manufacturer has approved in principle a development project to recalibrate its engines for optimised Hythane fuel operation in 2010.
