Eden expands fuel blend business into US

Perth-based green energy firm Eden Energy Ltd has established a new US subsidiary to lead the production and promotion of its 20/80 hydrogen/natural gas fuel blend.

Eden's announcement follows the release of a US government-backed study, which recommended government funding of US$55 billion over the next 15 years to ensure that hydrogen vehicles become competitive with petrol powered cars.

The US development follows progress by Eden in India, where the government's standing committee on emission regulation recently issued an approval for the addition of 20 per cent hydrogen to compressed natural gas for use in motor vehicles.

The approval will allow motorists access to Eden's patented Hythane fuel, a low-emissions mixture of 20 per cent hydrogen and 80 per cent natural gas, as an approved transitional fuel in the country's ongoing conversion to a full hydrogen-based fuel economy.

Eden has been working with the Indian authorities for the past 15 months to gain approval and has been promoting the use of Hythane in India for the past four years. Eden is contracted to construct the first public hydrogen dispensing station in Delhi.

With several Indian car, truck and bus makers developing both Hythane and hydrogen-powered vehicles, and Hythane diesel dual fuel emerging as a more cost-effective fuel for electricity production, Eden's Hythane technology is attracting global interest.

Test projects for the Indian electricity market have demonstrated that a 400kW Cummins diesel generator can run on a mixture of Hythane and diesel fuel to reduce the cost of electricity production from 10.97 rupees (AU27 cents) to 6.5 rupees (AU16 cents) per kW hour.

The savings result from a 78 per cent reduction of diesel in the fuel mix.

"With the price of natural gas about 60 per cent cheaper than diesel fuel, India can obtain significant savings when thousands of generators convert to the dual fuel operation," Eden executive chairman Greg Solomon said.

Hundreds of thousands of diesel-powered generators operate throughout India in most major commercial industrial and residential complexes.

"These preliminary results are extremely encouraging and exceed our expectations for reducing the cost of electricity production for the Indian market using natural gas or Hythane," said Mr Solomon.

Eden will supply the dual fuel kits and the production equipment and proposes to market the dual fuel systems in conjunction with the generator manufacturers to existing customers.