GREEN HYDROGEN: INDIA’S HOPE FOR BECOMING NEXT SUPER POWER

 

Electric vehicles have revolutionized the automotive industry and have also implanted the seed in the general public towards being more aware towards a cleaner and greener ecosystem.

Unfortunately, the electric vehicles too contribute in increasing the carbon foot print and thus we need to consider hydrogen-based fuel cell electric vehicles also called as FCEV’s.
These vehicles run on electricity but that electricity is not produced from a battery but from fuel derived by renewable energy sources like hydrogen.

Hydrogen is manufactured using four approaches and likewise the processes have been named as Gray, Blue Turquoise and Green. The first three rely upon non-renewable energy resources like coal and methane which also increase greenhouse emissions but the fourth one is green because of its dependency on sun light and the process by which the hydrogen is made is basically electrolysis.

 

 

The process of electrolysis is very simple, sunlight is used to generate electricity which eventually is used to break water molecule into oxygen and hydrogen. This hydrogen is stored and then is used to dissipate energy, this way the hydrogen rendered as a fuel is “Green” i.e., devoid of any usage of non-renewable energy resources.

The process of electrolysis is age old, but now due to reducing cost of electricity generation from renewable resources like sunlight, this method has gained its due significance for green hydrogen production.

Also, the world leaders have finally recognized the adverse effect on climate change caused due to the carbon emissions and hence as per the Paris agreement of 2015, India has thus promised to bring down the greenhouse emissions by 2030 and green hydrogen will be a very efficient tool in crystallizing this vision.

The European Union also has come to consensus that it is necessary to impose a tax on nations that exceed their carbon emissions beyond a limit.
The steel industry uses Grey Hydrogen as fuel and the carbon footprint from steel industry alone is projected to rise to beyond 33 percent of total emissions. Boston Consultancy Group has predicted that a levy of 30 dollars per metric ton of tax will reduce the profits of key producers of steel by 20 percent, assuming that the price of crude oil remains at 20 to 30 dollars per barrel.

 Now India is second largest exporter of steel in the world and also one of the most polluting countries considering the fact that steel production alone contributes to about 20 percent of total fossil fuel emissions.

Thus, the biggest boon to our country both economically and ecologically would be to use green hydrogen for the production of steel.

 

The significance of green hydrogen powered electric vehicles over traditional electric vehicle is also worth mentioning, consider a standard Lithium ion powered EV we would see that the battery uses up about 400 to 500 liters of space while providing a distance range of 500 km. But in a green hydrogen FCEV the size of fuel cell is 50 percent lesser than that of EV and gives similar distance range. Also if someone were to increase the electric vehicle battery size in order to increase its range, he would also be increasing the weight which would prove counterproductive.

In order to charge an Electric Vehicle, it takes about 30 to 40 minutes of time. This time might be of less value to average commuters but in the commercial transport sector it means losing money. Comparing with FCEV we see that even a large truck can get its hydrogen cell filled in less than eight minutes which is a saving of more than 20 percent compared to EV. Thus, this green hydrogen can cut down transportation time and cost in a very substantial way.

Our Honorable PM Shri Narendra Modi’s vision is to make India a global exporter of green hydrogen by 2047. But there are a few hindrances in our way:

Firstly the cost of green hydrogen is extremely high, at the moment it is three times the cost of lithium ion. Thus, for transportation industry it is not commercially viable yet.

Secondly for steel and chemical industry the grey hydrogen is a lot cheaper than green hydrogen. Green hydrogen costs about 500 rupees/kg whereas grey hydrogen costs only 150 rupees /kg.

Thirdly, as of now the extraction of green hydrogen is dependent on mining of platinum and iridium which will prove detrimental to the very cause green energy negates which is harming the environment.

Fourthly the storage of hydrogen is difficult and also the round-trip efficiency of hydrogen is very less as of now which is about 40 to 45 percent. This means that if 100 Joules of energy is converted to hydrogen and that hydrogen is converted back to energy, we would only get about 40 Joules of energy. Comparing with Lithium – ion, the round-trip efficiency is about 95 percent which is substantially larger than green hydrogen.

 

So indeed gren hydrogen is very promising tool for India's growth but not unless these issues are met with and resolved. Untill then we can only reduce our carbon foot print by traditional methods.