India: Government unveils US$6.16bn hydrogen and fuel cell vehicle infrastructure plans
Tuesday, June 05, 2007, AutomotiveWorld.com
The Indian Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has launched a Rs250bn (US$6.16bn) National Hydrogen Energy Roadmap to promote the use of hydrogen and build a hydrogen energy infrastructure including the introduction of hydrogen-fuelled vehicles by 2020.
Renewable Energy minister Vilas Muttemwar says that the hydrogen roadmap has proposed two major initiatives to develop hydrogen-powered engines and fuel cell-based vehicles. Muttemwar adds that the roadmap aims to place about one million hydrogen-fuelled vehicles on Indian roads.
As part of the initiative, the government has sanctioned a demonstration project in collaboration with Indian Oil Corporation to set up a hydrogen dispensing pump at a fuelling station in New Delhi, national daily Times of India has reported. The pump will dispense hydrogen and hydrogen blended with CNG (HCNG) as a vehicular fuel. The report adds that the station will use an electrolyser system for generation and will have facilities to store and dispense hydrogen and HCNG in varying ratios. The HCNG blends will be used in the modified CNG vehicles.
The project is expected to be commissioned by March 2009, the report states.
According to the ministry, apart from water, distillery waste bagasse can be used to produce hydrogen fuel. The ministry also plans to create a National Centre for Hydrogen Energy and Fuel Cell Technology at its Solar Energy Centre campus at Gurgaon in Haryana.
The ministry has also been appointed as the nodal ministry for overall coordination of the National Biofuel Programme.
In related news, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, said that the government should offer subsidies for the development of hydrogen fuel to meet the target of a million hydrogen-powered vehicles by 2020, news agency Press Trust of India has reported. Speaking at a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) conclave recently, Ahluwalia said that the government must decide if subsidies should be offered on existing applications to increase scale or on research, the agency reported.
Published on Tuesday, June 05, 2007
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