Canadian Company Markets On-board Electrolyzer
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By Steve Gilchrist,
Vice President, Government Affairs

For over a century, industry has embraced a wide variety of applications of hydrogen. From the earliest beginnings of the automotive industry, hydrogen was a leading contender to be the primary fuel for cars and trucks. Pressure from the oil and gas industry ultimately forced industrialists like Henry Ford to use gasoline and diesel in their engines – regardless of their perception that these fuels were “too dangerous”. In times of shortage, particularly in Germany in WWII, hydrogen made a brief resurgence as an automotive fuel, but, until today, such use was intermittent, at best.

Since the mid-1970’s, the focus of the bulk of research in the use of hydrogen has been in the area of fuel cells. Unfortunately, particularly in North America, there is relative little awareness, amongst the general public, of more immediate opportunities to use hydrogen to offset the production of noxious emissions.

For almost eight years, Canadian Hydrogen Energy Company has been marketing an on-board electrolyzer that disassociates hydrogen and oxygen atoms from distilled water and then vents those gases into the air intake of large hydrocarbon-fuelled engines. This Hydrogen Fuel Injection (HFI) technology is fully patented in the U.S. and around the world and offers truck, bus, off-road, rail and gen-set operators significant emissions reduction, with a twist. Unlike virtually all other means of reducing noxious emissions, the addition of hydrogen promotes more complete combustion of the diesel, gas, propane or natural gas engine, so much so that the company offers an unequivocal commitment to improve fuel economy by a minimum of 10%.

Additional benefits include reduced engine maintenance expense, a 3% increase in horsepower and torque and a reduction in greenhouse gases (equivalent to the percentage improvement in fuel economy). In any vehicle with medium to high fuel consumption, the use of the HFI technology means that an engine operator can meet tough emissions standards, while actually making money in the process!

To date, the units are installed on ambulances, municipal buses, SUV’s, boats, diesel-gensets and almost 100 fleets of transport trucks. Fuel savings range from 10% to over 30% and, in many applications, the payback time is well under one year.

In the next few months, the company will be expanding the applications to include locomotives, large generators and natural gas boilers – further reinforcing the fact that Hydrogen Fuel Injection can serve as a bridge to the comprehensive hydrogen economy of the future.


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