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EXPLAINED - What is Green Hydrogen and why is India keen on it?

India’s largest gas transporting and marketing firm, GAIL has awarded the contract to build one of India’s largest green hydrogen plants in the form of a 10 MW proton exchange membrane electrolyser in Guna of Madhya Pradesh. India's first green hydrogen plant was established by OIL in Assam last month.

Anurakti Sharma

Updated May 13, 2022, 11:02 IST

Representative Image.

Photo : iStock

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

India intends to add 500 GW of non-fossil fuel capacity by 2030.
Green hydrogen aims to give out zero emissions during production as well as usage.

New Delhi: With Prime Minister Narendra Modi signing a green hydrogen pact with Germany during his Europe visit and GAIL buying a 10 MW electrolyser to produce 4.3 tonnes of green hydrogen per day, the gas is once again in focus.

What is green hydrogen?

Water is made of one hydrogen and two oxygen atoms. Without contamination, water mostly contains only these two elements. Green hydrogen is regular hydrogen obtained by separating hydrogen and oxygen molecules of water by using only renewable energy.

How is it made?

Green hydrogen is made by a process called electrolysis. It means when you run an appropriate amount of electric current through water, it separates hydrogen and oxygen. However, the energy used in electrolysis must be renewable of clean energy, which will not release any carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Use of green hydrogen:

According to data from the International Energy Agency (IEA) in 2018, the demand for hydrogen has tripled since 1975. The consumption of hydrogen reached 70 million tonnes in 2018. It has been used to fuel cars, spaceships, and industries, among other areas. However, the usage of green hydrogen in industries is very low.

Importance of green hydrogen:

Unlike other carbon-based fossil fuels, hydrogen as fuel only gives out water vapour and leaves no residue. According to IEA, green hydrogen would reduce carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere by 830 million tonnes, annually.

It is 100 percent sustainable as it emits harmful gases neither while burning nor during production. It is easy to store and versatile. Hence it can be whatever the user needs it to be including electricity, synthetic gas, and usage for commercial, mobility, domestic, or industrial purposes.

It doesn’t need any additional infrastructure to transport either as the existing infrastructure, used to transport natural gas, can be used for the same by mixing 20 percent of natural gas to it.

With nothing but gains for the environment, the only catch with green hydrogen is that it is not cheap to produce because of the requirement of renewable or clean energy to run the electrolyser. However, with increasing clean energy resources and renewable energy getting cheaper, the World Hydrogen Council predicts that it will become 50 percent economical by 2030.

India’s National Hydrogen Mission:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a National Hydrogen Mission in 2021 to make India a hub of green hydrogen production and export. India intends to become self-reliant in energy and inspire clean energy transition across the world.

India’s OIL (Oil India Limited) established the country’s first pure green hydrogen plant in Assam. Conglomerates like Reliance Group and Adani Group have also announced plans to enter green hydrogen production.

Adani Group plans to invest $70 billion to become the world’s largest renewable energy company.

Usage across the world:

Hydrogen as a fuel is already used widely across the world with a global market value of $900 million. The investment in green hydrogen across the world is estimated at 121 GW plants with 136 projects. Countries like Australia, China, Japan, UAE, Saudi Arabia, India, South Korea, the U.S., U.K., several EU countries and many more are already investing in green hydrogen.

China is the current global leader for green hydrogen with an output of 20 million tonnes.

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