PIPEDREAM: The hydrogen-driven vehicle roadmap leaves many unanswered questions

THE Indian government has announced an ambitious plan to phase in a million hydrogen-fuelled vehicles by 2020. Seventy-five per cent of these vehicles will be two- and three-wheelers, according to the Union ministry of new and renewable energy. A hydrogen based power-generating capacity of 1,000 MW and Rs 25,000 crore worth of hydrogen supply infrastructure are in the pipeline to support this venture.

A steering group of the national hydrogen energy board, set up by the ministry in 2003, drew up the roadmap. It was headed by Ratan Tata, chairperson of the Tata Group, who said,
India is investigating the potential of running Internal Combustion engines on hydrogen as opposed to Fuel Cell Technology favoured in the West, which Indian industry believes will take longer to develop. M Raja of Tata Motors says that hydrogen can be used sooner in IC engines through adaptation of the existing infrastructure.

The Compressed Natural Gas programme in Delhi provides the immediate bridge for transitioning to hydrogen in India. A commercial hydrogen dispensing station will be commissioned in the capital by March 2009 as a joint project of the Union ministry of new and renewable energy and Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, dispensing neat hydrogen and CNG-blended hydrogen as vehicular fuels for modified CNG vehicles. The station will also have a hydrogen generation capacity.

The Statesman