The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers’ (SIAM’s) green project to blend 18 per cent hydrogen with Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) will hit on-road trials in the next 2-3 months.
The project, spearheaded by SIAM along with participation from all major automobile makers in the country, aims at modifying engines to suit the new blend, giving optimum power with minimum emission.
“The final modification in the prototype engine has been done and in the next 2-3 months, the on-road trials on a fleet of test vehicles would begin,” SIAM director general Dilip Chenoy told Business Standard.
The trials would log around 100,000 km to test the new technology before it is adapted for commercial use, he added.
The project was taken up under the National Hydrogen Energy Road Map for developing greener fuel technologies to cut emission. The hydrogen-blended CNG, called HCNG, will produce minimum Nitrogen Oxide.
“The existing engines could be retrofitted to use the new green technology,” Chenoy added. He informed the Centre, in association with SIAM, was working towards reducing vehicular emission by 25 per cent by 2020.
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Chenoy was in town for ‘The Auto Conclave’ as part of the annual ‘Manfest 2010’ of the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow (IIM-L) here.
The Centre is pushing for tighter emission norms for the domestic automobile industry and soon the mandatory disclosure of fuel efficiency standards by the manufacturers is likely to come into place.
Vehicular emission contributes less than 20 per cent of the total greenhouse gas emissions in India and comes third after power and agriculture sectors in contributing to carbon emission. However, according to estimates, the auto sector contribution is likely to go up to 25 per cent by 2030.
“The country needs alternative fuel technologies, including electric and hybrid to reduce vehicular emission,” he noted.