When it comes to transportation, long haul vehicles and commercial transportation are being preferred to first be supported with hydrogen powered fuel cells. As these vehicles over long distances, Hydrogen powered vehicles will offer similar range as ICE and therefore enable effective fleet utilization. Another popular application for commercial vehicles used in construction and materials managing where time available as these vehicles cannot afford long charging hours.
December 17, 2020. By News Bureau
Scientists, policymakers, international governments, and experts are now aligned that hydrogen is the fuel of the future as our reliance on fossil fuels will not sustain in the long term. Given the soaring prices of oil and high import bills, rising pollution levels coupled with economic viability, there is a need to move towards clean energy.
A future Hydrogen Economy has been proposed to use hydrogen as an energy source to meet the energy requirements on a large scale. In India, as well as globally, researchers are working towards to develop sustainable technologies for the production and use of hydrogen as a practical power source.
Hydrogen is the lightest and most abundant element that exists in the universe, making up 90% of all matter. Though it does not exist in its natural state on earth, it needs to produce and used in a compound to be used to power the economic sectors such as industry, transportation, manufacturing etc.
Hydrogen fuel cells help convert electrcal energy to power vehicles and gadgets, and therefore can replace conventional ICE engines in cars and trucks. Further, Hydrogen also has potential use of supplying electricity to remote regions and help supply energy security in the most sustainable manner. It has potential to full replace network-based electricity produced from fossil fuels and be the prime energy carrier for a region.
Advantages of Hydrogen as a fuel for urban transportation in India
Hydrogen’s widespread use for fueling transportation is an obvious way to achieve better urban air quality by reducing emissions. Globally, Europe, Japan, China, and the US are actively using hydrogen on various engineering platforms and industries, fuel commercial and passenger transportation. India too is working to develop a green hydrogen economy to produce Hydrogen gas and power vehicles on the road and reduce dependency on oil. It further will help in reducing dependency on oil and fossil fuel imports as India accounted for nearly 8.7% of total emissions of the global greenhouse gas emissions in India in 2011 and the number is rising rapidly ever since. Further, India’s energy-related carbon emissions are estimated to reach 31.9 Gt in 2020 and to limit to 21.7 Gt in 2035, as targeted in the Copenhagen Accord, measures need to be undertaken and a transition to clean energy transition to a Hydrogen Economy.
It is also being assessed on which sectors should be given priority for use of hydrogen. When it comes to transportation, long haul vehicles and commercial transportation are being preferred to first be supported with hydrogen powered fuel cells. As these vehicles over long distances, Hydrogen powered vehicles will offer similar range as ICE and therefore enable effective fleet utilization. Another popular application for commercial vehicles used in construction and materials managing where time available as these vehicles cannot afford long charging hours.
Where is India on its Hydrogen production and its utilization
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) in India has seen use of hydrogen as an area of strategic interest since early 2000s, when the first Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Roadmap was launched in 2006. The Indian Government has set an ambitious target of 1 million hydrogen-powered vehicles on the road along with 1000 MW of hydrogen power plants by 2020, which now is a far-fetched dream. Further, the government has proposed a $2.8 million for hydrogen energy & fuel cell-related activities for the current fiscal year.
This target, under a program by the National Hydrogen Energy Road Map (NHERMP) under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, for the adoption of hydrogen and its commercialization to build a hydrogen energy infrastructure in India. Other organizations such as NTPC have invited global interest for hydrogen fuel cell-based electric vehicles, while IOCL is also developing and implementing a project on hydrogen-CNG city transport buses and plans to launch 50 buses once COVID normalizes.
One of the most sought after uses of hydrogen has been to power vehicles, as its use only produces burning hydrogen in a fuel cell produces no harmful emissions, but electrical energy, heat, and water vapor. Given how pollution from road transportation is a growing concern with tones of air pollutants and greenhouse emissions, India plans to aggressively move towards building a hydrogen fuel economy.
As TERI has stated in one of its research reports, India had limited success in manufacturing benefits of solar photovoltaic and batteries, so now Hydrogen is seen as the next most viable option for clean energy economy. For India, Hydrogen presents a potential opportunity to decrease reliance on oil imports and use indigenous coal and natural gas resources as a fuel to power vehicles. Currently in India, hydrogen used in industries such as petrochemical fertilizers and chemical, where it is produced by Natural Gas, followed by oil, coal and water. While the first three ways are economical, there is much scope in using renewable sources and water continues to be research and developmental stage for large scale requirement.
Deployment of Hydrogen in India
The most common method to transport hydrogen is via road or rail transportation in pressurized tanks or simply using compact forms of hydrogen, as liquid hydrogen is far more efficient than a high-pressure gas, particularly where large quantities are required. Aspiring for the use of hydrogen for its use in transportation, NITI Aayog has also recommended the use of H-CNG by using existing piped-gas infrastructure in Delhi. While using LPG pipelines is an efficient way to transport hydrogen, their viability and suitability of these methods needs to be still addressed.
Challenges to adoption and deployment of hydrogen
Replacing fossil fuels with hydrogen in energy consumption has a promise to bring massive uses could bring major environmental benefits but technical, developmental, and cost challenges to produce, store and transport hydrogen are yet to overcome.
Despite the potential local and global environmental benefits of switching to hydrogen, there are several uncertainties for a large-scale shift towards a hydrogen economy in India. One of the biggest challenges to commercialize its use is the existence of a code of standards and safety to produce and accelerate deployment of hydrogen as a power source. There is also extensive research and development underway to assess the current methods of deployment, as well as the potential of “Hydrogen and Fuel Cells” in India. With standards and codes in place, researchers believe that these technologies would be processed faster and will reach to the markets soon, stated the Department. Further, indigenous research to target production of hydrogen fuel cells currently still is at a nascent stage, coupled with absence of fuel cell development program.
While many western economies have moved ahead in mass manufacture and deployment of hydrogen, India needs to scale up research and methods of cost reductions where hydrogen can start to displace significant amounts of fossil fuels.
The ambition to transition to a hydrogen-energy system for India, is a great one. With the rising pollution woes, the need to reduce carbon intensive emissions is clear. Hydrogen in India will be widely regarded a potential energy source of the future, but India needs to devise effective production routes from sustainable ways to produce hydrogen. A collaborate approach, between the government and the industry is the path to commercialize its use, for a practical hydrogen economy in India.
- Debi Prasad Dash, Executive Director, India Energy Storage Alliance
