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Context: India & Denmark agreed to initiate joint research and development on green fuels including green hydrogen, during the Joint S&T Committee meeting.

 

Key highlights of the Joint Committee:

• It emphasized on development of bilateral collaboration on mission-driven research, innovation, and technology development, including climate and green transition, energy, water, waste, food and so on.
• Green Strategic Partnership – Action Plan 2020-2025

 

About Hydrogen

• There are no natural hydrogen deposits on earth, it has to be extracted from other compounds by a chemical process.
• The vast majority of industrial hydrogen is currently produced from natural gas through a process known as steam methane reforming or SMR.
• Producing hydrogen in this way is sometimes referred to as brown or grey or even blue hydrogen.

 

Types of Hydrogen:

• Brown Hydrogen: most of the gas that is already widely used as an industrial chemical is either brown, if it's made through the gasification of coal or lignite
• Grey Hydrogen: if it is made through steam methane reformation, which typically uses natural gas as the feedstock. Neither of these processes is exactly carbon-friendly.
• Blue Hydorgen: where the gas is produced by steam methane reformation but the emissions are curtailed using carbon capture and storage. 
• Green Hydrogen: Green hydrogen, in contrast, could almost eliminate emissions by using renewable energy — increasingly abundant and often generated at less-than-ideal times — to power the electrolysis of water.

Green hydrogen current status

• At present, less than 1 per cent of hydrogen produced is green hydrogen, according to IRENA's World Energy Transitions Outlook.
• India consumes about six million tonnes of hydrogen every year. This could increase to 28 million tonnes by 2050.
• India has favorable geographic location and abundance of sunlight and wind for the production of green hydrogen.
• India will become a net exporter of green hydrogen by 2030 due to its cheap renewable energy tariffs, according to the Global Hydrogen Council.

 

Challenge in making Green Hydrogen:

• Storing and transportation: H2 is a highly flammable gas, it takes up a lot of space and has a habit of making steel pipes and welds brittle and prone to failure.
• High Cost: The International Energy Agency put the cost of green hydrogen at $3 to $7.50 per kilo, compared to $0.90 to $3.20 for production using steam methane reformation.
• Loss of Efficiency in every process: Electrolyzer efficiencies range from around 60 percent to 80 percent.

 

Significance

• Achieve targets pledged under the Paris Climate Agreement i.e. to reduce the emission intensity of its economy by 33-35 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030.
• Provide an alternative to fossil fuels
• Provide a transition toward low emissions and work towards a clean, healthy environment. 

 

Why India should opt for Green Hydrogen?

• Adoption of Green hydrogen technologies are favorable in those sectors where direct electrification isn't feasiblefor ex in Heavy duty, long-range transport and long-term storage in the power sector.
• With technological improvements, green hydrogen will become more affordable and accessible.
• It can be used in a wide range of existing applications such as fertilisers, mobility, power, chemicals and shipping.
• It can be blended up to 10 per cent by city gas distribution networks for wider acceptance.
• It is a cross-cutting solution that may reduce emissions across a range of sectors.

 

What can India do to build a global-scale green hydrogen industry?

• India should announce ambitious national targets for green hydrogenand electrolyser capacity by 2030.
• Launch an incentive programme for the production of electrolysers.
• Implementing complementary solutionsthat create virtuous cycles for ex. building the hydrogen infrastructure for refueling, heating and generating electricity at airports.
• Optimising distribution networksto decarbonise the gas grid.

 

https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1790951