Blue Hydrogen Not Really Green
- March 17, 2022
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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Blue Hydrogen Not Really Green
Subject: Environment
Section: Sustainable development
Context- Reliance Industries on February 12 announced an intent to become “the world’s top blue hydrogen producer” by repurposing a Rs 30,000 crore synthetic gas plant to manufacture the fuel. Globally, there is an increased interest in blue hydrogen.
Concept-
Hydrogen Fuel:
- Hydrogen is a nontoxic, nonmetallic, odorless, tasteless, colorless, and highly combustible diatomic gas.
- Hydrogen fuel is a zero-emission fuel burned with oxygen.
- It can be used in fuel cells or internal combustion engines. It is also used as a fuel for spacecraft propulsion.
- But hydrogen does not exist on its own. It is mostly present in water in the oceans and needs to be extracted to be used as a fuel.
- Most commonly, this is done by electrolysis wherein current is passed through water to split hydrogen and oxygen.
Types of Hydrogen:
- Grey Hydrogen: Constitutes India’s bulk Production.
- Extracted from hydrocarbons (fossil fuels, natural gas).
- By product: CO2
- Blue Hydrogen: Sourced from fossil fuels.
- By product: CO, CO2
- By products are Captured and Stored, so better than gey hydrogen.
- However it is not considered to be clean since extraction of natural gas invariably results in atmospheric leakage of methane, a gas with 25 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide.
- Green Hydrogen: Generated from renewable energy (like Solar, Wind).
- Electricity splits water into hydrogen and oxygen.
- By Products : Water, Water Vapor
- Electric current from fossil fuel gets yellow hydrogen and from nuclear power gets pink hydrogen.
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