Australian company forms US subsidiary

Eden Hydrogen unites two wholly-owned Eden subsidiaries – Colorado-based hydrogen use and storage company, Hythane Company, and hydrogen fuel producer, HyRadix – under one corporate roof at Des Plaines, close to Chicago in the state of Illinois.

The company’s announcement comes a few days after the release of a US government-backed study, which recommended government funding of US$55 billion over the next 15 years to ensure that hydrogen vehicles become competitive with petrol-powered cars on US roads.

“Eden Hydrogen is a milestone in our growing capacity to deliver integrated, innovative hydrogen solutions, and we are positioning it to become the hub of an extensive hydrogen revolution in the US, India and elsewhere,” Eden’s executive chairman Greg Solomon said.

“In creating a single point of contact for our hydrogen storage, generation, use and marketing businesses, we have captured the hydrogen supply chain within a single, efficient entity.”

The US development follows significant progress by Eden in India, where the Government’s Standing Committee on Emission Regulation  issued an approval for the addition of 20% hydrogen to compressed natural gas for use in motor vehicles.

The approval paves the way for the widespread use of the company’s patented Hythane fuel – a low-emissions mixture of 20% hydrogen (by volume) and 80% natural gas – as an approved 'transitional fuel' in the country’s ongoing conversion to a full hydrogen-based fuel economy.

One of the company’s first business activities will be the construction of the US$1 million first public hydrogen dispensing station in India, being built in the city of Delhi, which is due to come online during the second half of 2008.

Eden Hydrogen will be headed by chief executive officer Robert Gray, formerly CEO of Eden Innovations Ltd and a past president of HyRadix.

With several Indian car, truck and bus makers now developing both Hythane and hydrogen-powered vehicles, and Hythane/diesel dual fuel emerging as a more cost-effective fuel for distributed electricity production, Eden’s Hythane technology is attracting growing interest in many countries, including the US, India, China, Pakistan and Italy.