India has taken various initiatives to ensure greater use of hydrogen in the country’s energy mix. One important step in that direction was the government’s announcement in the last Union Budget to set up the National Hydrogen Mission for making a hydrogen roadmap for the country.
Dharmendra Pradhan, Petroleum and Natural Gas & Steel Minister, Government of India, while addressing the Hydrogen RoundTable on “Hydrogen Economy: New Delhi Dialogue – 2021”, said the country is looking towards various colours to kick-start the hydrogen ecosystem development. “We are working on a pilot project on blue hydrogen, hydrogen CNG (H-CNG) and green hydrogen. Through technological advancements, we are blending hydrogen with compressed natural gas for use as transportation fuel as well as an industrial input to refineries,” he said.
As part of the pilot, 50 buses in Delhi are plying on a hydrogen-CNG blended fuel, and the plan is to scale it up in the coming months across major Indian cities.
In October last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had outlined a new energy map of India with seven key drivers. Development of emerging fuels, particularly hydrogen, was one of them.
Great Future Potential
There is increased enthusiasm about hydrogen, the Minister said while addressing the roundtable, adding that the fuel has great potential to emerge as a future source of energy.
Inclusion of hydrogen as an energy carrier in the future energy portfolio presents a unique opportunity to address emerging energy vectors, including power to gas, power to power, and power to mobility and even vehicle to grid applications, he said. “Whether it’s used in a fuel cell or burned to create heat, wherever hydrogen replaces fossil fuels, it slows global warming,” said the Minister.
The government isn’t looking at utilising hydrogen only for the transport sector. It believes the maturity of the ecosystem can be accelerated through its usage as a decarbonising agent for many sectors, including chemicals, iron, steel, fertiliser & refining, transport, heat & power.
Adopting hydrogen in India’s energy mix wouldn’t require major infrastructural overhauling, said the Minister. The ministry is looking at introducing H-CNG as an intermittent technology in a big way for both automotive and domestic cooking applications.