Re: EDE - Eden Energy
Months since there was a post on this one. Time for an update. (Cut and paste from a company announcement.)
"Australian Securities Exchange Announcement
28 May 2010
Australian company heralds successful tests in development
of India’s first production Hythane ® engine for bus fleet
Australian-based green energy developer, Perth-based Eden Energy Limited (ASX; EDE), is
pleased to announce the successful testing of a production-ready 6-litre engine that will enable
India’s largest bus manufacturer, Ashok Leyland, to power buses with Eden’s low-emission
Hythane ® blend of hydrogen-enriched natural gas.
The revolutionary 2010 H06B CNG engine - developed by Eden’s wholly-owned US subsidiary,
Hythane Company, at Ashok Leyland’s Hosur laboratory in India - was initially designed to meet
the country’s current Bharat IV (Euro IV) mandatory emissions targets.
Significantly, the results from last month’s calibrated control system and exhaust catalyst for the
naturally-aspirated engine have revealed it will ultimately enable India’s buses to operate at a
level of emissions that meet the most stringent standards of future.
Justin Fulton, Hythane Company’s Director of Engine and Fuel Systems, said the results would
comply with the next generation of Bharat V (Euro V) requirements, ensuring a long production
life for the HO6 engine.
Over the “European Transient Cycle” (ETC), an engine dynamometer test that simulates realworld
driving conditions for heavy-duty vehicles, the Hythane ® engine tests yielded the following
improvements relative to the natural gas baseline:
• Oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions reduced by 16.6%
• Total hydrocarbon (THC) emissions reduced by 15.1%, including a non-methane
hydrocarbon (NMHC) reduction of 66.6%
• Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions reduced by 6.2%
• Fuel efficiency improvement of 6.5% based on fuel combustion energy.
Eden Energy will receive royalties from both Ashok Leyland and the engine control system
provider for all Hythane-fuelled-engine sales.
“Although the use of natural gas buses has reduced pollution over the past 5 to 10 years in cities
like Delhi and Mumbai, NOx and smog continue to be a serious health problem,” Mr Fulton said.
“The use of Hythane ® fuel in the nation’s municipal buses will make a significant reduction in
these pollutants, without any power or performance penalties, and without expensive engine or
vehicle add-on equipment,” he said.
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“It is significant that Hythane ® fuel reduces CO2 emissions with regards to global warming. Also,
the THC emissions from natural gas are almost all methane, a greenhouse gas that is over 20 times
more potent than CO2. With a renewable hydrogen feedstock for the Hythane ® fuel blend, around
7 tonnes of CO2-equivalent greenhouse gas could be saved annually for each bus,” Mr Fulton said.
“The real-world driving cycle fuel efficiency improvement with Hythane ® fuel could provide up
to 5% lower operating costs for the bus operators with industrial-scale hydrogen production
sources for vehicle fuel.
“Even with small on-site hydrogen production at each refuelling station, the efficiency increase
with Hythane ® at least covers the extra cost of the hydrogen in the fuel blend, so the emissions
improvements are free.”
In the near future, Ashok Leyland will also release turbo-charged versions of the H06 engine, and
the control system strategies used for these engines will allow them to take advantage of
hydrogen’s unique combustion properties above and beyond the improvements seen in the base
CNG/Hythane ® engine.
Preliminary investigations on the new engines began in April after the base engine production
calibration work, and production-intent optimisation by Hythane Company and Ashok Leyland
will continue this year.
Hythane Company’s President, Roger Marmaro, said: “While pure-hydrogen engine and fuel cell
technology continues to advance, the immediate availability and leveraged benefits of hydrogennatural
gas fuel blends will allow Hythane ® engines to play the most significant role in meeting
India’s Vision 2020 goals and promoting the development of a new hydrogen economy.”
India joined the International Partnership for the Hydrogen Economy (IPHE) as a founding
member in 2003. By 2006, a National Hydrogen Energy Roadmap was created to plan for a
gradual, practical transition to hydrogen energy and infrastructure, including power generation
and transport applications. The Roadmap’s Vision 2020, through the Green Initiatives for
Transport (GIFT), calls for 1 million vehicles to be operating on hydrogen fuels by 2020.
The release of India’s first production Hythane ® engine will precede the country’s first large-scale
refuelling station for hydrogen-enriched natural gas, as previously announced by Eden Energy.
This station, due to be constructed by the end of the year, will refuel 50 to 70 buses in Mumbai. In
addition to the Ashok Leyland buses, another major Indian bus manufacturer has approved in
principle a development project to recalibrate their engines for optimised Hythane ® fuel operation
in 2010."
The above announcement shows that there is progress being made with the roll out of Hythane. Trials like this are not done in a day but require the results on many miles of travel by the buses under trial. It IS an ongoing trial that is bound to prove the value of Hythane as a much cleaner fuel with some cost savings attached.
Patience is required but patience should be rewarded and with the SP at 6.9c there is not a lot to lose. I'm holding my quota, neither buying nor selling so if this is considered a ramp then so be it. However I believe EDE to be a good long term investment. DYOR.. Remember "the bigger the possible gain, the bigger the risk".