Pollution is the
most concerned issue for the countries. Rising level of pollution has been a
reason of damaging nature and natural resources. Its impact on human and the
whole ecosystem is like a slow poison. Humans are the main cause behind rising
the pollution.
What is HCNG?
Hydrogen as a resource
is the most promising fuel for the automotive sector. Being number one on the
periodic table, it is one of the most combustible as well very powerful. It’s
the same fuel that’s used to power for space rockets.
The reason Indian government has been considering the use of this fuel, blended with natural gas, is because- it has
very few emissions and high in the performance of the vehicles.
HCNG- is a mix of
hydrogen and CNG. This fuel contains 18 percent of hydrogen while the rest of
it is compressed natural gas. The hydrogen is extracted from methane and is
blended with CNG to create a gas, which has far fewer carbon emissions than
CNG.
HCNG = CNG + H2
What is CNG?
Compressed Natural
Gas (CNG) is methane stored at high pressure. CNG as a fuel can be used in
place of gasoline, diesel fuel and propane/ LPG and its combustion produces
fewer undesirable gases then the other mentioned fuels. Combustion is a high
temperature exothermic chemical reaction between a fuel and an oxidant that
produces oxidized products.
Why Indian government
is pushing for hydrogen-based fuels?
Apart from the
fact that HCNG is a cleaner source of fuel, it is more powerful and gives more
mileage almost 4-5 percent higher.
Many researchers
have shown that the thermal efficiency of both natural gas and HCNG increases
when the load it carries increases simultaneously, which makes it an ideal fuel
for high load applications and heavy.
The reason is not
just to push to the HCNG the government aim to promote companies who are
willing to offer vehicle that are fully running on hydrogen fuel cells as well.
in 2015, Tata Motors had launched its own bus powered by hydrogen fuel cells
dubbed star bus Electric/ hybrid.
Note- Indian oil corporation has a laboratory of
its own that produces HCNG and its India’s first Hydrogen filling station.
What would
be the challenges for implementation of HCNG?
Hydrogen might be
one of the most available gases on the planet, but there are challenges that
stand in the way of using hydrogen as a fuel source.
The biggest challenges
in using HCNG for buses is determining the most optimized hydrogen/compressed
natural gas ratio. The most obvious challenge
is the lack of proper infrastructure to make and distribute a fuel like this. Also,
just like other gaseous fuels, both natural gas and hydrogen are lighter than
air which means that is there is a leak it will quickly disperse into air. So proper
storage options are also challenge.
Lastly, the current
cost of hydrogen is higher than that of natural gas which means HCNG is going
to be more expensive than CNG.
HCNG reduces emission of CO(Carbon mono oxide), and CO2 up to 70% and enables up to 5% savings in fuel. Hydrogen economy will be far more sustainable than any other fuel. Engines
can be calibrated to release lower amounts of NO. Moreover, engines need minimum modification
to run on HCNG.
No doubt, HCNG remains the ideal fuel for high load applications and heavy-duty vehicles as it gives better
performance due to higher octane rating of hydrogen.
Blending of HCNG with CNG would
be helpful to curb pollution for the world as well as India. India is currently one among the top most polluted country in
the world after china. Several countries are using HCNG to fight with pollution.
Therefore HCNG is a welcome step for India to make greener and pollution free.
Hello, my name is Jack Sparrow. I'm a 50 year old self-employed Pirate from the Caribbean. 
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