India’s drive for green hydrogen could help clean up the whole world

India’s drive for green hydrogen could help clean up the whole world

Hydrogen is the cleanest fuel, but  nearly all of it’s locked up with other   rudiments in the form of water, hydrocarbons, etc. The current  marketable  processes of extracting hydrogen  contaminate the atmosphere, but ‘ green  hydrogen ’ is set to change that. And with the  lately approved National  Green Hydrogen Mission, India aims to achieve leadership in this field. Read More Business News on our website.

Hydrogen produced by electrolysing water, using electricity from solar or  wind power projects, is designated ‘ green ’ hydrogen – or decreasingly, just  GH2.  GH2 seen as the ‘ fuel of the future ’ as it’s considered to be the cleanest fuel, because its  product or consumption doesn’t leave any carbon trail, but it requires large  volumes of energy to produce. One must know that the hydrogen’s colour canons signifies a lot!  The colour canons indicate the source. Grey hydrogen extracted from natural gas is the most common type in use at present.  Brown hydrogen is produced through gasification of coal. This process emits greenhouse gases as a derivate. Blue hydrogen  is tapped from greenhouse gases locked up in carbon capture and storage  establishments.

PM Narendra Modi first laid out the plan at the third renewable energy investors meet in November 2020. Finance minister  Nirmala Sitharaman articulated the roadmap by  trumpeting the mission in her Budget speech on February 1, 2021. The power  ministry on February 17, 2022 notified GH2 and green ammonia policy enablers. Eventually, the Cabinet approved an  incitement  package to  sow the market on January 4 this time. The  objective is to strengthen India’s pole position in climate action and energy transition as well as reduce dependence on energy imports.  GH2 can potentially lead to savings of Rs 1 lakh crore in India’s energy import bill and cut out 68 of  precious gas shipments  by replacing traditional artificial fuel/ feedstock. The government sees India meeting 10 of g global GH2 demand by 2030.   Prices of hydrogen vary according to source,  request conditions and currency rates. GH2  presently costs Rs 300/ kg. The  average cost of grey hydrogen extracted from natural gas – the generally used form of hydrogen – equaled  Rs 130/ kg but  has been Rs 200- 250/ kg since the Ukraine conflict.

Incentive of a little over$ 2 billion India is offering to develop a GH2 ecosystem.  Paramount of this money will go towards supporting 15GW( gigawatts) of domestic electrolyser manufacturing  capacity by 2030. By  further the government believes India will have a capacity of 60GW, anticipated to be the largest in the world.  The remaining  finances will be used for strategic intervention to help  systems.   Sanctioned documents indicate that there are around 25 countries chasing the GH2 dream with support from their governments. Germany is offering  the loftiest support at$ 10. 3 billion, followed by the US with$ 9 billion, France$ 8. 2 billion and the European Union$ 4. 3  billion.

Hydrogen have its  downsides too. It’s  largely  ignitable  due to its high energy  viscosity and is risky to transport or store. This means either GH2 plants  must be set up near consumption sites and green power wheeled from hence, or the gas must be converted into liquid ammonia  for transporting. Both options impact the overall  design economics.

State- run IndianOil and GAIL have  declared commercial scale GH2 plans. NTPC this week came the first entity to  mix PNG with GH2. GAIL and IOC have  aviators for blending CNG with  slate hydrogen. Oil India Ltd is running hydrogen  motorcars in  Kaziranga National Park, Assam. In the private sector, Reliance Industries Ltd, Adani Group and ACME Group havemega-size  plans for manufacturing electrolysers, as well as GH2 and green ammonia units.