Eden to build India's first hydrogen fuel outlet

Hythane Company LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Perth-based Eden Energy Ltd, has been selected by the Indian Oil Corporation to supply and install the first public hydrogen/Hythane dispensing station in India.

Hythane Company won the international tender ahead of American and European bidders to build the $1.13 million retail fuel outlet in the Indian capital, Delhi, at one of its busy petrol/natural gas refuelling stations.

The hydrogen dispensing station, comprising hydrogen production (5 NM3 of hydrogen per hour), compression, storage, blending of hydrogen and natural gas (to make Hythane) and dispensing equipment, will be used to refuel a number of trial vehicles including buses, cars, trucks and three-wheel auto-rickshaws with either hydrogen or Hythane.

Approximately 2,500 vehicles per day currently refuel at the existing site with petrol, diesel and natural gas.

The hydrogen dispensing station, which is scheduled for completion in the third quarter of 2008, is expected to be a springboard for the progressive commercial rollout across India, commencing in 2009, of what Eden anticipates will be thousands of hydrogen/Hythane refuelling stations.

The trial outlet will be installed and operating at the same time as two other major Hythane bus demonstration projects that Eden plans to undertake in Gujarat and in Mumbai during 2008.

In 2007, India adopted as part of its hydrogen roadmap, a plan to use the hydrogen/ Natural Gas blend as its Natural Gas vehicle fuel standard, as part of the nation's drive to have at least 20 per cent of all vehicles (estimated at more than one million) operating on hydrogen-based fuels by 2020.

Eden Energy executive chairman Greg Solomon said the deal was a significant milestone in Eden's bid for global leadership in hydrogen fuel technology as it meant Eden had now been fully accepted by "India Incorporated" to help drive its hydrogen based cleaner fuel emission objectives.