India’s largest distributor of natural gas will join with Australian firm Eden Energy Limited (EEL) in the world’s first commercial-sized trial of a hydrogen-enriched blend of natural gas designed to reduce notorious pollution levels from that country’s massive public transport bus fleets.
The trial will see between 50 to 70 new buses using the natural gas technooogy on the streets of Mumbai, a city of some 16 million people, by the end of this year.
The buses will be fuelled by Hythane, a blend of natural gas enriched with 15 to 20 per cent hydrogen and developed by the US subsidiary of Perth-based and ASX-listed clean fuel technologist, EEL.
Hythane has been shown to reduce harmful emissions and greenhouse gases from gas-powered vehicles by up to 50 per cent while increasing their efficiency by up to 15 per cent, EEL claims.
The new agreement will see Eden over the next nine to twelve months install a Hythane refuelling station and associated infrastructure at a bus depot in central Mumbai operated by the State-owned BEST Undertaking.
Hythane will initially fuel two buses and expand to more than 50 natural gas-powered buses.