Role of Hydrogen in India’s clean energy transition

In Context 

This article highlights how Hydrogen could completely transform India’s energy ecosystem.

About Hydrogen

• Hydrogen is the lightest element. 
• It is the simplest and smallest element in the periodic table. No matter how it is produced, it ends up with the same carbon-free molecule. 
  • However, the pathways to produce it are very diverse, and so are the emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4).

• At standard conditions, hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula H2. 
• Properties 
  • It is colourless, odourless, tasteless, non-toxic, and highly combustible. 
  • Hydrogen is the most abundant chemical substance in the universe, constituting roughly 75% of all normal matter.
  • 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.

• Different Types of Hydrogen 
  • Green hydrogen: It is defined as hydrogen produced by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using renewable electricity. 
    • This is a very different pathway compared to both grey and blue.
  • Grey hydrogen: It is traditionally produced from methane (CH₄), split with steam into CO₂ – the main culprit for climate change – and H₂, hydrogen. 
    • Grey hydrogen has increasingly been produced also from coal, with significantly higher CO₂ emissions per unit of hydrogen produced, so much that is often called brown or black hydrogen instead of grey. 
  • Blue hydrogen 
    • It follows the same process as grey, with the additional technologies necessary to capture the CO₂ produced when hydrogen is split from methane (or from coal) and stored for the long term. 
    • It is not one colour but rather a very broad gradation, as not 100% of the CO₂ produced can be captured, and not all means of storing it are equally effective in the long term. 
    • The main point is that by capturing a large part of the CO₂ , the climate impact of hydrogen production can be reduced significantly.

Significance of Hydrogen for india’s  futuristic energy landscape

• Multifaceted role
  • India’s per capita energy consumption is about one-third of the global average and one-twelfth of the U.S.
    • Hydrogen has a multifaceted role to play in the futuristic energy landscape, be it energy storage, long-haul transport, or decarbonisation of the industrial sector.
• Great balancer
  • In the long run, two envisioned prominent fuels are hydrogen and electricity.
    • Both are energy vectors, hydrogen can be stored on a large scale and for a longer duration explicitly affirming its huge potential to become a great balancer to the ever-increasing supply of variable renewable energy. 
• Support for India’s ambitious plan
  • It will complement and accelerate renewables into India’s clean energy transition, thereby supporting India’s ambitious plan to achieve 500 GW renewable capacity by 2030.
• Decarbonisation
  • Hydrogen has a major role to play in the decarbonisation of India’s transport sector. 
  • In the industrial segment, hydrogen can decarbonise ‘hard-to-abate’ sectors such as iron and steel, aluminium, copper etc.
•  Fulfils the three Es of India’s energy road map
  • Hydrogen fulfils the three Es of India’s energy road map — energy security, energy sustainability and energy access — and India should strive to seize one more E, viz. economic opportunity so that industry can be encouraged to its full potential.
  • It can help lay the foundation of a new India which aims to be a global climate leader
• Transform India’s energy ecosystem
  • Hydrogen could completely transform India’s energy ecosystem by shifting its trajectory from an energy importer to a dominant exporter over the next few decades.
• Achieving the Paris Agreement’s goal 
  • With hydrogen, India could lead the world in achieving the Paris Agreement’s goal to limit global warming to 2°C compared to pre-industrial levels. 
  • In COP 26, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given a clarion call of panchamrit (five goals), with an ambitious target to achieve Net Zero by 2070. 
    • Hydrogen will certainly play a decisive role in India’s Net Zero ambition and in making India ‘Atma Nirbhar in energy’.

Challenges in harnessing Hydrogen Economy

• Transportation of hydrogen: 
  • Hydrogen in gaseous form is highly inflammable and difficult to transport. Safety is seen as a concern

• Difficulty in Detection  :

• Hydrogen lacks smell, which makes any leak detection almost impossible thus increasing the potential dangers.

• High R&D requirement
  • The commercial usage of hydrogen as a fuel and in industries requires mammoth investment in R&D of such technology and infrastructure for production, storage, transportation and demand creation for hydrogen.
• Multiple regulatory authorities: 
  • Red tapism happens due to the involvement of multiple ministries and the lack of coordination between them.

•  Russia-Ukraine crisis
  • The Russia-Ukraine crisis could pose a serious threat to our energy security, accentuating an unequivocal need to strive for energy independence. 
• The high cost of hydrogen manufacturing and water scarcity could also pose a challenge. 

Suggestions to devise strategy 

• Demand side : 
  • A mandate should be given to mature industries such as refining and fertilisers, with adequate incentives to create an initial demand.
  • Industries manufacturing low emission hydrogen-based products inter alia green steel and green cement need to be incentivised by government policies. 
  • Blending hydrogen with natural gas can act as a big booster shot which can be facilitated by framing blending mandates, regulations and promoting H-CNG stations. 
  • Hydrogen fuel stations may be planned on dedicated corridors where long-distance trucking is widespread to promote FCEVs. 
  • The concept of carbon tariffs needs to be introduced on the lines of European countries.
• Supply side
  • Investment in R&D should be accelerated to bring its cost at par with fossils. 
  • Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) scheme with a target to produce 15 MMT of compressed biogas could be leveraged by exploring biogas conversion into hydrogen. 
  • A Viability Gap Funding (VGF) scheme may be introduced for hydrogen-based projects to commercialise and scale-up nascent technologies.
  •  Electrolyser manufacturing and hydrogen projects need to be brought under Priority Sector Lending (PSL) to secure affordable financing
  • The thrust should be on reducing the cost of electrolysers by implementing the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme as two dominant cost factors for green hydrogen are renewable energy tariffs & electrolyser costs.
• Other ways 
  • On the transportation front, ammonia, having high energy density, could be promoted as a mode of transportation. 
    • A hydrogen transportation system could also be built on the foundation created for natural gas by using its existing infrastructure. 
  • Additionally, hydrogen transportation projects may be integrated with the PM Gati Shakti Master Plan.

Source:TH