HydroHub™
HydroHub™
Transport · Fleet · Gensets
Usage case · remote logistics economics

The litre you don't burn is worth what it cost to get there.

Fuel economics at a remote mine site, a pastoral station or a research camp are not the economics printed on a bowser. The number that matters is landed cost — what you actually paid to have a litre of diesel available at the point of use, after cartage, barging or air freight. The percentage a system might reduce consumption by does not change with remoteness. The dollars behind that percentage do.

Short answer

Why does remote operation change the case for combustion enhancement?

Because the baseline cost is higher, not because the saving is bigger. The independent literature reports fuel-consumption reductions from hydrogen enrichment in a broadly single-digit to mid-teens range, and only under some duty cycles. That range is unchanged at a remote site. What changes is that each litre is valued at delivered cost rather than pump price, so the same percentage represents a larger absolute figure. We publish no headline performance percentage of our own, and we do not publish a landed-cost multiplier — both belong to your own data.

  • Landed cost = product + freight + handling + losses, divided by litres that reached the tank.
  • Delivered cost at remote sites can be significantly higher than bowser price; by how much is site-specific.
  • The honest saving range does not increase with remoteness — only the dollar value per litre does.
  • Model it with your own invoice figures in the fuel savings calculator.
1 · Two different prices

Pump price is not what remote fuel costs you.

Pump price

What a litre costs at a retail or bulk supply point. It is the number most fuel-saving arithmetic on the internet uses, because it is the only number that is easy to find. For an operation that draws fuel from a nearby bowser, it is also roughly correct.

Landed (delivered) cost

What a litre costs once it is in the tank at the point of use. Product cost plus road cartage over long unsealed hauls, barge or coastal freight, air freight in the extreme cases, plus handling, demurrage, wet-season contingency and losses. For remote operations, this is the only figure that should appear in a fuel business case.

What we deliberately do not state

We do not publish a general landed-cost multiplier. Claims of the "three times pump price" kind are presented as facts far too often and they are not facts — they are one operation's haul, one season, one contract. Delivered cost at remote sites can be significantly higher than bowser price, and the honest way to handle that is to take the figure from your own invoices.

2 · Same percentage, larger baseline

The multiplier sits on the cost, not on the claim.

Independent published work on hydrogen and oxyhydrogen enrichment reports fuel-consumption reductions that sit broadly in the single-digit to mid-teens percentage range on the engines and conditions tested — with results that vary widely by duty cycle and engine, and with several studies reporting little or no benefit. That is the range this whole site works within, on fuel efficiency and evidence review alike.

Remoteness does not shift that range upward by a single point. The chemistry of the cylinder does not know where the tank was filled. What remoteness does is raise the price attached to every litre in the calculation, so the same conservative percentage produces a larger dollar figure than the identical percentage would at a metropolitan depot. That is the entire economic argument on this page, and it is the only form of it we will make.

For the reverse of the same logic — duty cycles where the literature suggests the percentage itself is likely to be at the weaker end — read idle and part-load duty cycles.

3 · Model your own figures

The calculator has a remote-site input. This page is its explanation.

The fuel savings calculator carries a "fuel is hauled to a remote site" option with a delivered-cost multiplier you set yourself, and a reduction percentage you set yourself. Nothing in it is suggested, typical or implied by us. Enter your landed cost per litre — or your pump price and your own multiplier — along with your consumption and hours, and read the arithmetic.

4 · Where this applies

Operations whose fuel arrives by truck, barge or aircraft.

Mining and resources

Haul fleets, ancillary equipment and site power at locations hundreds of kilometres from a supply point, with fuel arriving by road train and stored on site. Equipment-class detail is on the mining page.

Read more

Remote agriculture and pastoral

Stations and irrigation operations where diesel is carted in and stored in farm tanks, and where pumping and harvest windows concentrate consumption into short periods.

Read more

Marine and island operation

Vessels and shore facilities bunkering at limited ports, and island or coastal operations where fuel arrives by barge. Marine detail is on the marine page.

Read more

Remote research, camps and site power

Field stations and camp gensets running on carted fuel, where a delivery is a logistics exercise rather than a purchase. Generator selection is covered under generator sets.

Read more
5 · What is not claimed here

Boundaries, stated plainly.

No percentage beyond the honest range reported by independent studies is claimed anywhere on this page, and no percentage on this site is presented as the performance of our systems.

No landed-cost multiplier is asserted as a general fact. Delivered cost can be significantly higher than pump price; the size of that gap is yours to establish from your invoices.

No compliance, certification or emissions-test outcome is claimed or implied. Nothing here is a payback guarantee.

Findings from the studies cited on this page — including Saravanan & Nagarajan (2008) and Karagöz et al. (2016) — are set out per study, with test conditions, on visible smoke reduction and evidence review. They are laboratory results on their own engines, not statements about your fleet.

No projected, typical or expected fuel-saving figure is published. Actual results vary materially with engine condition, duty cycle, load profile, fuel quality, installation and operating conditions. A controlled field evaluation on your own equipment, with baseline data captured before installation, is required before any commercial projection.

FAQ

Remote fuel economics: common questions.

Does operating at a remote site increase the percentage of fuel saved?

No. Nothing about remoteness changes combustion. The honest range reported in the independent literature — broadly single-digit to mid-teens percentage reductions in fuel consumption, and only under some duty cycles — is exactly the same range at a remote site as it is in a metropolitan depot. What changes is the value of each litre not burnt, because the delivered cost of that litre is higher. We publish no headline performance percentage for our own systems.

What multiple of pump price should I assume for delivered fuel?

We do not publish one, and you should be sceptical of anyone who does. Delivered cost depends on your haul distance, road or barge access, seasonal closures, tank and bunding infrastructure, demurrage, contract terms and volume. The only number worth using is the one from your own fuel invoices and freight charges. The calculator takes that figure as an input rather than assuming it for you.

How do I work out my own landed cost per litre?

Take the total of what you actually paid to have fuel available at the point of use over a period — product cost, freight or cartage, any handling, demurrage and losses — and divide it by the litres that reached the tank. That figure, not the bowser price in the nearest town, is the number a consumption reduction should be valued against. Enter it in the calculator as your effective fuel price, or enter pump price and your own multiplier.

Does reducing consumption reduce delivery frequency?

Arithmetically, less fuel burnt over the same period means the same tank lasts longer, so a site may re-order less often. Whether that removes a delivery in practice depends on your tank capacity, scheduling, minimum order quantities and contract structure, none of which we can see. Treat any avoided-delivery benefit as something to verify against your own logistics, not as a claim made here.

Is this a return-on-investment claim?

No. This page explains why the economics of a given percentage reduction differ between a metropolitan and a remote operation. It does not promise a payback period. Payback depends on your measured result, your landed cost and your duty cycle, and the only responsible way to establish it is a controlled baseline on your own equipment.
Related

Continue reading.

Hydrogen combustion enhancement

What it is, how PEM gas reaches the cylinder, and what it does not do.

Engine performance improvement

Flame speed, burn completeness and load response on diesel engines.

Fuel efficiency

How to baseline and measure litres per 100 km or litres per hour.

Emissions reduction

Soot, particulate and unburnt-fuel behaviour, and how to test it.

Visible smoke reduction

Smoke opacity findings per study, with the NOx trade-off disclosed.

Generator-set classes

Camp, prime, standby, rental, telecom, irrigation and ship's service sets compared.

Idle & part-load duty cycles

Reefers, camp gensets and high-idle plant — where the literature reports most room.

Hydrogen with biodiesel blends

Per-study findings for hydrogen enrichment on biodiesel, NOx disclosed.

Installation guide

Nine-step fitting sequence: mounting, wiring, gas line, commissioning.

Safety & compliance

On-demand gas, no storage, alarms, shutdowns and reversibility.

Troubleshooting

Alarms, low gas output, water quality and no-start diagnostics.

Case studies & field results

Published operator data and trial methodology.

Compare PEM systems

A-450 to DH-Power side by side: displacement, output, current draw.

Does it actually work? Evidence review

The published literature, the FTC/EPA history and the ACL context.

How it works

Gas path and established physics, explained with diagrams.

PEM vs alkaline

Membrane on water versus caustic KOH: servicing, purity, cost.

Sizing combined gas

Why PEM and alkaline gas-volume benchmarks are not interchangeable for ICE sizing.

Four hydrogen technologies

Enhancement vs H2ICE vs fuel cell vs chemical generation.

Compared with Hydrogen Fuel Systems

Honest comparison with the Perth-based Gen alkaline range.

Compared with H2i Technology

Hardware, pricing and evidence transparency versus the Victorian supplier.

Compared with dynaCERT HydraGEN

PEM versus alkaline, published price versus dealer quote, Verra versus ACCU.

Compared with HYDI

The South Australian manufacturer: UniSA testing, field history and quote path.

AU installation, warranty & safety

VSB 14 and VSB 6, ACL guarantees and documentation to keep.

Mining fleets

Haul trucks, dozers, drill rigs and site gensets: unit selection and dust.

Marine

Workboats, charter, fishing and ship's service gensets — no gas stored aboard.

Agriculture

Tractors, headers, pump sets and farm trucks across seasonal duty.

FAQ

Answers on fitment, water, warranty, freight and duty cycles.

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