Hydrogen Economy – New Delhi Dialogue 2021

In News

The Energy Forum (TEF) and the Federation of Indian Petroleum Industry (FIPI), under the aegis of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, are organising a Hydrogen Roundtable titled “Hydrogen Economy- the Indian Dialogue-2021.

About The Hydrogen Economy – New Delhi Dialogue 2021

• It will comprise a High-level Ministerial Session, followed by five Panel Discussions by eminent policymakers, experts and industry leaders from different geographical regions of the world, with focus on policy roadmaps and mapping demand and supply of Hydrogen.
• The Hydrogen Roundtable will have 25 panellists from15 countries, discussing the potential of Hydrogen from multiple sources and its relevance in national energy transitions.
• Objectives
  • To understand the progress of the Hydrogen ecosystem across continents and contribute to creating synchrony among the think tanks,  Governments and the industry to join forces for developing innovative and sustainable technologies at attractive costs.
  • It aims to discuss emerging hydrogen ecosystems and exploring opportunities for collaboration, cooperation and coalition.

Key Takeaways

• India and the United States will launch a Hydrogen Task Force under the Strategic Energy Partnership between the two countries soon,
• hydrogen will be especially valuable for large-scale and long-duration energy storage to “meet our goal of a completely carbon-free grid by 2035
• The UAE has also expressed keenness to work with India public and private sectors to help develop the hydrogen market and support New Delhi’s growing demand for energy and need for cleaner fuels.

What is Hydrogen?

• It is considered the future of clean and sustainable energy.
• It can be directly used as a fuel similar to natural gas or as input for fuel cells to generate electricity.
• The sources and processes by which hydrogen is derived, are categorised by colour tabs.
  • Hydrogen produced from fossil fuels is called grey hydrogen, this constitutes the bulk of the hydrogen produced today.
  •  Hydrogen generated from fossil fuels with carbon capture and storage options is called blue hydrogen.
  •  Hydrogen generated entirely from renewable power sources is called green hydrogen.
  • In the last process, electricity generated from renewable energy is used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen in an electrolyser.

Benefits

• Experts believe hydrogen vehicles can be effective in long-haul trucking and other hard-to-electrify sectors such as shipping and long-haul air travel.
• Hydrogen is about two to three times as efficient as burning petrol because an electric chemical reaction is much more efficient than combustion.
• Hydrogen can act as an energy storage option, which would be essential to meet intermittencies (of renewable energy) in the future.
• It ensures regional and national energy security, access and availability.

Challenges

• A big barrier to the adoption of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles has been a lack of fuelling station infrastructure.
•  There are fewer than 500 operational hydrogen stations in the world today, mostly in Europe, followed by Japan and South Korea.
• Safety is seen as a concern and it is highly flammable.
• In terms of challenges to green hydrogen specifically, the cost of renewable electricity is the major problem.

Government Initiatives

The government has taken various initiatives with respect to the greater use of hydrogen in India’s energy mix.

National Hydrogen Mission

• It had recently announced the National Hydrogen Mission in the Union Budget 2021 for making a hydrogen roadmap for the country.
• It aims to generate hydrogen from green power sources.
• It is essential to decarbonise heavy industries like steel and cement, it also holds the key to clean electric mobility that doesn’t depend on rare minerals.

SATAT scheme

• Hydrogen is also capable of aligning with the Ministry’s other flagship schemes, like the promotion of compressed biogas under the Sustainable Alternative for Affordable towards Transportation (SATAT) scheme or promoting the gas-based economy or other initiatives on Waste-to-Energy.
•  Such integration will impart much more flexibility and capacity utilization to the vast infrastructure available or being created in India.

Way Forward

• There is a need to reduce electrolyser costs and supply chain logistics.
• This will require funding.
• Policymakers should also consider how to create legislative frameworks that facilitate the integration of the hydrogen-based sector.
• Public investments need to be strategized and channelised well.

Source :PIB