Green Hydrogen

The world is going through an energy crisis and needs a sustainable energy resource as fossil fuels are now about to end. Also burning fossil fuels leads to pollution and also emits greenhouse gases, which have become the main reason for ozone layer depletion. Many countries including India are working on increasing their green hydrogen production. Since hydrogen is one of the most abundant chemicals on the earth and is classified under green fuels, it doesn’t emit greenhouse gases on burning.

According to a report from International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) survey, hydrogen will make up around 12% of the Global Energy by 2050.

What is Green Hydrogen?

Green hydrogen is one of the cleanest fuels which is produced by electrolysis of water via renewable sources of energy like wind energy or solar energy. On electrolysis, the water splits into two parts hydrogen and oxygen, and the produced hydrogen is called green hydrogen. Green hydrogen is often referred to as the fuel of the future, as in the future fossil fuels will not be present, thus hydrogen will become the only source for power generation. Apart from green hydrogen, there are even more varieties of hydrogen available.

• Grey Hydrogen- Produced from methane or coal
• Blue Hydrogen- Produced from methane or coal, but the emitted gases are captured through carbon capture.
• Turquoise Hydrogen- Produced from methane
• Green hydrogen- Produced from renewable sources like wind and solar energy

India’s outlook on Green Hydrogen:

At present India consumes more than 6 million tonnes of hydrogen each, which is further expected to increase up to 28 million tonnes per year by 2050. India hydrogen is used in various industries like in fertilizer industry, refineries, and the production of ammonia. Also if the production of hydrogen doesn’t get increased then it’s expected, that by 2030 hydrogen fuel will cost same as the hydrocarbon fuels (crude oil and natural gas). However, as the global production of hydrogen and its sale increase the prices will decrease significantly. 

Why is India moving towards Green Hydrogen?

• Under the Paris agreement of, 2005 India committed to reduce its total greenhouse gases emittance by 33-35%.
• Each year India exports fuels from many nations to generate energy and it costs around 100 million dollars.
• In order to become energy independent, GOI needs to adopt green hydrogen, as the other major fuels are being imported from other countries.
• The transportation sector in India accounts for more than 33% of total greenhouse gases in India. Thus replacing the same will green hydrogen will reduce greenhouse gases emission significantly.
• India is one of the highest carbon-dioxide emitters and accounts for more than 7% of the global carbon-dioxide emissions.
• On producing 1 kg of green hydrogen around 8 kg of oxygen is received as a by-product, which is quite useful in industries and hospitals.

Government of India Initiatives, Moving towards Green Hydrogen:

• National Hydrogen Mission (NHM):

In the union budget of 2021-22, the GOI came up with an Idea of switching toward hydrogen as the main fuel and started the National Hydrogen Mission. Under this program, the Government of India is preparing a road map for cutting down carbon emissions by using green hydrogen. The GOI is planning to replace carbon-based fuels with green hydrogen in the coming 20-30 years and become energy independent.

• Setting up new Production Facilities:

The Ministry of Petroleum and the GOI jointly inaugurated the first green hydrogen plant in India recently, developed and managed by the OIL (Oil India Corporation). This plant is capable of producing 99.99% pure hydrogen and is powered by a 500 KW solar plant. At present, it can produce around 10kgs of hydrogen per day which is further expected to increase by 30 Kg per day.