Hydrogen as fuel

Hydrogen as fuel

Subject: Science and Technology

Context: Union Petroleum and Natural Gas & Steel Minister Shri Dharmendra Pradhan today said that India is looking towards various colors to kick-start the hydrogen ecosystem development.

Concept:

• Hydrogen is a clean fuel that, when consumed in a fuel cell, produces only water. Hydrogen can be produced from a variety of domestic resources, such as natural gas, nuclear power, biomass, and renewable power like solar and wind.
• Hydrogen is a versatile energy carrier that can be produced from a wide range of sources and used in many ways across the entire energy sector.
• It can be produced from Solar-driven processes using light as the agent for hydrogen production
• Water can be separated into oxygen and hydrogen through a process called electrolysis
• Biological processes use microbes such as bacteria and microalgae and can produce hydrogen through biological reactions. In microbial biomass conversion, the microbes break down organic matter like biomass or wastewater to produce hydrogen, while in photo biological processes the microbes use sunlight as the energy source.

Grey, Blue and green hydrogen

• When produced industrially from natural gas (which generates significant carbon emissions) it is known as “grey” hydrogen. (It is cheapest)
• When hydrogen is produced from natural gas but carbon emissions are captured and stored, or reused it is called “blue” hydrogen. (price is influenced both by natural gas and carbon capture and storage)
• The cleanest one of all is “green” hydrogen, which is generated by renewable energy sources without producing carbon emissions in the first place.

Steps by India

• The Hydrogen RoundTable on “Hydrogen Economy: New Delhi Dialogue – 2021”, Union Petroleum and Natural Gas & Steel Minister said that in India, various initiatives with respect to the greater use of hydrogen in India’s energy mix.
• Government of India recently announced the National Hydrogen Mission in the Union Budget 2021 for making a hydrogen roadmap for the country.
• In the past six years, India has increased its renewable power portfolio from 32 GW to almost 100 GW. We are well on track to achieve 450 GW target of renewable energy generating capacity by 2030,
• The petroleum sector is the largest producer of hydrogen for various refinery process operations.
• Hydrogen is also capable of aligning with the Ministry’s other flagship schemes, like the promotion of compressed biogas under the Sustainable Alternative for Affordable towards Transportation (SATAT) scheme or promoting the gas-based economy or other initiatives on Waste-to-Energy
• The refineries are planning to leverage the available surplus hydrogen capacities in gray form for meeting the initial demand in mainstreaming hydrogen. One of such projects is underway at our Gujarat refinery of Indian Oil wherein the combination of hydrogen production through natural gas and its hyphenation with the carbon capture technology will result in the production of blue hydrogen. Multiple buses powered by fuel cells will be covering various iconic routes. Efforts are underway to leverage the vast CNG pipeline infrastructure to reduce the transportation cost of hydrogen.

Sustainable Alternative towards Affordable Transportation

• Sustainable Alternative towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) is an initiative aimed at setting up of Compressed Bio-Gas production plants and make it available in the market for use in automotive fuels by inviting Expression of Interest from potential entrepreneurs.
• The initiative was launched in October 2018 by the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas in association with Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) Oil Marketing Companies (OMC) viz. Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd.
• Compressed Bio-Gas (CBG) plants are proposed to be set up mainly through independent entrepreneurs. CBG produced at these plants will be transported through cascades of cylinders to the fuel station networks of OMCs for marketing as a green transport fuel alternative. The 1,500-strong CNG stations network in the country currently serves about 32 lakh gas-based vehicles.
• The entrepreneurs would be able to separately market the other by-products from these plants, including bio-manure, carbon-dioxide, etc., to enhance returns on investment.
• These plants are expected to produce 15 million tonnes of CBG per annum, which is about 40% of current CNG consumption of 44 million tonnes per annum in the country. At an investment of approx. Rs. 1.7 lakh crore