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KUCHING: Sarawak Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg Wednesday chose to forego his official car, Mercedes Benz and be driven instead in a Hyundai Nexo, a hydrogen fuel-cell car.

“They (students) were looking at my car today. I used Hyundai, a car made by Korea, and it uses hydrogen, not fossil fuel but fuel cell, and hydrogen can be retrieved from our water, h2o through a certain process, through membrane that separates hydrogen and oxygen, that’s the car I’m using today.

“Meaning, along the journey, technology will definitely change because of data analytics. Sarawak has an abundance of water, therefore, with that resource, I believe one day with passion and focus by our young today, we can export hydrogen from our water,” he said.

He said this in his closing remarks at the Sarawak Invention, Innovation and Design Exposition (SIIDEX) aimed at nurturing the culture of innovation and interest in sciences and technologies among students.

Abang Johari said although there were some who claimed that hydrogen was dangerous, he did not mind being part of the research and development in order to realise the full potential of the gas, make use of the abundant resources of water in the state and contribute to lesser carbon emission on the planet. “We need to find solution and that there is balance, you would have fresh oxygen to support the population and the environment is clean too.. and I will prove to you that it can be done through this car Hyundai..even up till now there’s no carbon emission. “For the past one month I’ve been using the car, if something’s dangerous, than I will be the first victim,” he said.

Abang Johari told reporters when met that the car was part of the R&D to convert water resources in the state to hydrogen which would be later used for public transportation and new commodity to be exported. “It will take time, could be one year or two years, the thing is we have delivered it and we had produced hydrogen on our own through that process (R&D), and we’ve got a lot of water, eventually, we will convert our digital economy, based on hydrogen economy,” he said.

Asked whether the state government would procure a hydrogen car fleet for its Cabinet, he said it would wait for the outcome of the R&D.

On the number of potential refuelling stations for the state, he said the government had plans to build five initially. – ­ Bernama