When I worked for a few months in Delhi at the end of 2002 I was pleasantly surprised by my daily commute. I had heard that the Delhi air was absolutely choked with automobile exhaust fumes and made commuting unbearable. Having converted many buses and rickshaws over to natural gas (CNG) seemed to have done a pretty good job in cleaning up the Delhi skies. Los Angeles, where I live, is still playing catch-up. In the near future though, Indian cities may surge ahead again thanks to the most reliable form of transportation. Indianexpress.com explains:
The great Indian autorickshaw may have just shifted to the eco-friendly CNG but itÂ’s ready for the generation-next fuel.
Taking a major leap towards Indo-US co-operation in the energy sector, the United States Department of Energy (DOE) and US Agency for International Development (USAID) have helped develop a hydrogen-run three-wheeler for Indian roads.
The Rochester Hills (Michigan)-based Energy Conversion Devices (ECD) has successfully converted and developed a CNG-run three-wheeler of Bajaj Automobiles into one run on hydrogen fuel.
Converting over to a hydrogen economy in the U.S. would be a massive undertaking that would span a couple decades. Some analysts think that China and India who have a smaller oil infrastructure could make the switch more easily, and also become more competitive economically, if they start with an alternative energy source while their economies are still developing. I know the critics will say that a hydrogen economy is pie in the sky but I’ve always had a saying: If it’s good enough for the Space Shuttle then its good enough for me (Tang and Velcro included).
Anything that means less money going to oil-oligarchs of the Middle East sounds good to me.
I’ll wait till the crash test results are out–hydrogen tanks need to built and maintained to ridiculous safety standards. Radiator, oil pump, or fuel tank leak anyone?
No way. Hydrogen fuel is still to volatile and unsafe as an alternative fuel and especially in a city like Delhi where autorickshaws would be put under immense workloads from day one. No autorickshaw driver would agree to using hydrogen fuel if it meant refueling every hour or so.
P.S. The shuttle doesn’t use hydrogen only, it uses a mix of hydrogen and oxygen which is used to ignite the hydrogen fuel. I doubt any rickhawallah is looking to add gimbals and rocket motors as an after market mod to their rides.
Iceland is trying to convert, they’ll probably be the first. They only import oil and are self-sufficient in the rest of their energy needs, so they’re interested in trying this …
anangbhai, I know that of course. I was trying to simplify things for the general audience. Thanks though.
Hydrogen is not the magic fuel it’s made out to be. Producing hydrogen requires plenty of electricity (there is no method available that’s very efficient – we are not producing cheap hydrogen from ocean water yet) and that electricity does not come from non polluting sources. Sure, the hydrogen vehicles won’t pollute the skies, but the plants that produce the electricity that produce hydrogen will create plenty of pollution. California can afford to use hydrogen, India can’t.
I don’t think that Hydrogen is stored as gas; well, not at least for this case (in the case of the shuttle it is liquid H2). I believe that the hydrogen batteries contain metal-hydride compunds.
Driving around a car or 3-wheeler with gaseous hydrogen will be like driving a bomb.
Bangladesh has already been swarmed by more than 40000 of these CNG autorickshaws (produced by Indian companies and only a scanty portion by chinese manufacturers).
Hydrogen-run three wheelers seem to be a brilliant idea for the future. I think the Indian manufacturers can plan their production keeping demands from Bangladesh in mind.
Didn’t some rickshaws used to run on kerosene, or is that a fanciful memory from my childhood that isn’t true?
Don’t hold your breath. I know Energy Conversion Devices pretty well–Stan has somehow figured out the magic of running a public company that consistently loses money almost every single year for decades.
And let’s assume that the underlying technology issues are resolved–for this to work, India needs to make a massive coordinated long-term infrastructure investment. And I don’t see that happening in my lifetime…
As a fuel for cleaning up the street pollution, three cheers for Hydrogen. Iceland is indeed thinking of converting, and I saw a few Hydrogen powered buses running around. Despite the population level that’s about, oh, four orders of magnitude smaller, in the one packed part of Reykjavik they can drive pretty crazy. So that’s some kind of safety testing.
I’m all in favor of Hydrogen fuel. A car that’s powered by Hydrogen isn’t necessarily dependant on oil, it’s dependant on electricity, and that electricity can be generated whichever way, so if cleaner generation methods come along, there’s no transition cost. And in the mean time the combustion can be happening in a more controlled environment, with the advantages of scale. I’m pretty sure that joule for joule, a joule in your car is a lot more polluting then a joule from an oil powered gas plant. So it’s great from that pov.
But it’s not really going to cut down on our dependance on fossil fuels unless we also investigage other ways of generating electricity. The Icelanders have boiling hot water below the surface. I don’t think too many parts of India have that kind of clean geothermal bonanza.
For those of you poo-pooing hydrogen, like Ennis said, Iceland has clean methodology to produces tons of Hydrogen. This is based on some reports quite a few years ago, so I looked around for more information:
I am afraid hydrogen fuel is not the answer to independence from Mideast oil that some believe. Producing it is a very energy intensive process. The countries with the cheapest sources of energy for producing hydrogen fuel are — the Mideast countries. Quit hoping for quick fixes and get out that bike!