Hong Kong’s Towngas says hydrogen production tests successful, ready to fuel bus operators’ low-emission transition

Towngas will soon be ready to supply Hong Kong’s bus operators, executive tells ReThink HK sustainability conference

Towngas’s hydrogen will not reduce bus companies’ energy supply chain carbon footprint, but roadside emissions will be eliminated

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An electric bus, left, and a hydrogen fuel-cell electric double-decker bus are seen at Citybus’s West Kowloon Depot in this file photo from June 28. Citybus plans to press its first hydrogen buses into service next year. Photo: Edmond So

Published: 7:40pm, 5 Oct 2022

Hong Kong and China Gas (Towngas) has successfully tested the production of hydrogen from its gas supply with the aim of jump starting heavy vehicles’ low-carbon transition in the city, the ReThink HK sustainability conference heard on Wednesday.

Towngas, the city’s dominant provider of piped gas with 3,600 kilometres of pipelines that serve millions of households and businesses, will soon be ready to supply Hong Kong’s bus operators, said Isaac Yeung, the firm’s head of corporate ESG.

“Our devices have already been successfully tested,” he said. “Recently, we invited government officials to [conduct] a test and [grant] a formal licence for this application.”

This is significant because transport is Hong Kong’s second-largest source of carbon emissions. It contributed 18 per cent of the city’s total emissions in 2019, after the electricity generation sector’s 66 per cent.

Towngas’s gas comprises around 49 per cent hydrogen, 29.5 per cent methane, 18 per cent carbon dioxide and traces of carbon monoxide, nitrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen can be separated and processed to 99.9 per cent purity.