Suggested Citation:
Amrouche, Fethia, Ahmed Benzaoui, Paul A. Erickson, Bouziane Mahmah, Farid Herouadi, Maiouf Belhamel (2011) Toward Hydrogen Enriched Natural Gas "HCNG" Fuel on the Algerian Road. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 36 (6), 4094 - 4102

The Algerian transport sector is still largely dependent on petroleum. Pollution emitted by this sector is constantly increasing with the expansion of the automobile fleet. Thus, there is a pressing need for use of cleaner and economically viable alternative fuels. Therefore, the use of Hydrogen enriched Compressed Natural Gas (HCNG) is expected to play a signiï¬cant role to reach this target. When hydrogen and natural gas are used together in an internal combustion engine, large beneï¬ts are possible. Algeria has signiï¬cant resources and potential to introduce this new fuel. The development of HCNG as a transportation fuel allows an entry point for hydrogen in the transportation sector. The aim of this paper is to discuss strategic ways to introduce HCNG as road fuel, in Algeria. Two fundamental strategic elements were designed to introduce the Hydrogen Enriched Natural Gas as a transportation fuel. These are, the development of compressed natural gas as a road fuel, and the completion of the MedHySol project. The MedHySol project includes the production and the distribution of solar produced hydrogen, and involves the project HySolThane intended for the development of HCNG fuel road with 8% vol of Hydrogen in Natural Gas.

Keywords: Algerian automobile fleet, greenhouse gas emission, hydrogen energy carrier, hydrogen enriched compressed, natural gas “HCNG”, HySolThane project