Green hydrogen is sometimes referred to as “the fuel of the future” because of its promise as a clean energy source. However, what exactly is hydrogen that is green? Why is it considered environmentally friendly?
To that end, what are its applications and advantages?
What is green hydrogen?
Hydrogen gas is a multipurpose fuel with applications in transportation, power generation, and manufacturing. When burned, it does not produce any harmful by-products like carbon dioxide. Clean hydrogen is hydrogen gas generated from non-polluting sources like the sun or the wind.
How is hydrogen used as a fuel?
A fuel cell is a device that uses chemical energy to generate electricity. When hydrogen gas reacts with oxygen, electricity and water vapour are created. Hydrogen has the potential to be a low-emissions replacement for fossil fuels due to its efficiency as an energy source.
How is hydrogen produced?
When it comes to chemistry, hydrogen is king. Hydrogen is found in abundance in nature, but only in compounds like water, making it unusable as a gas in its pure form. Hydrogen, therefore, needs to be manufactured using conventional techniques. The majority of them involve fossil fuel reformation, specifically natural gas. Electrolysis is another technique, in which hydrogen and oxygen are extracted from water using an electric current.
What is the difference between green, grey and blue hydrogen?
Hydrogen itself does not contribute to global warming when burned, but the electricity required to create it may have come from fossil fuels. Grey hydrogen, as it’s popularly called, makes up about 95% of the world’s supply right now.
The carbon emissions released during the production of hydrogen from fossil fuels like coal and gas are captured and stored using carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies, giving this type of hydrogen its “blue” designation. Electrolysis using renewable electricity, produced by methods like solar panels or wind turbines, is the method by which “green hydrogen” is produced.
Green Hydrogen Opportunities
In recent research titled “Harnessing Green Hydrogen-Opportunities for Deep Carbonisation in India,” the Indian government’s think tank, NITI Aayog, discussed the potential for deep carbonization in India.
The research includes a comprehensive strategy for the green hydrogen value chain and how it could operate.
Seems like it may turn out well, right? In particular, green energy and green hydrogen stocks.
This report recommends the following:
Based on state grand challenges, three hydrogen corridors should be established across the country.
The state government should incubate and fund new businesses, connect entrepreneurs with investors, and implement rules to mitigate the inherent dangers of being an industry pioneer.
The export of green hydrogen and green hydrogen-embedded products should be encouraged through a worldwide hydrogen alliance, and the government should use public procurement and purchase incentives (for green hydrogen) to generate demand in niche sectors and lure private investment.
Not only did it advocate for these measures, but it also emphasized the importance of facilitating investment through demand aggregation and green hydrogen dollar bidding. Now that these ideas are out there, the government will undoubtedly provide new incentives and legislative adjustments to hasten the switch to green hydrogen.
6 Leading Green Hydrogen Companies
1) Reliance
One of the leading producers of grey hydrogen (the impure variety), Reliance, has announced that it intends to transition to green hydrogen. The company has lately declared its intent to become carbon neutral by the year 2035. Electricity and hydrogen, two clean fuels, are proposed as alternatives to fossil fuels in transportation.
Over the next three years, the company plans to invest Rs 750 bn in renewable energy projects, such as the Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Giga Complex, a 5,000-acre green energy integrated complex in Jamnagar, Gujarat.
Included in the complex will be facilities for producing solar cells and modules, batteries for storing energy, fuel cells, and electrolyzers for creating environmentally friendly hydrogen.
New and cutting-edge technology is being brought to India, and the company is looking for collaborators to help.
Reliance (RIL) and the Danish firm Stiesdal A/S have formed a joint venture through RIL’s subsidiary, Reliance New Energy Solar (RNESL), to design and produce hydrogen electrolyzers.
The collaboration between RNESL and Stiesdal will allow them to pool their resources and expertise to speed up the advancement of hydrogen electrolyzer technology.
Observers predict that RIL will construct an electrolyzer production facility with a capacity of 2.5 GW.
Producing green hydrogen for both domestic use and export, the electrolyzer Giga factory will produce electrolyzers in a modular design.
Although this will be costly (green hydrogen costs about US$ 3.6–5.8/kg), the company’s chairman, Mukesh Ambani, has hoped to generate hydrogen at “sub-US$ 1 per 1 kilogram within a decade.”
2) Indian Oil Corporation Ltd
Earlier this month, it was reported that the largest retailer of fossil fuels in the country would construct a green hydrogen plant at its Mathura refinery in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It’s estimated that the unit can produce roughly 160,000 barrels of oil per day.
By transporting energy from its wind power facility in Rajasthan to its refinery in Mathura, it will be able to electrolyze water to make completely environmentally friendly hydrogen.
Additionally, the company intends to develop a green hydrogen manufacturing unit in Kochi that will use the airport’s solar power infrastructure as its primary source of power.
The airport in Kochi is the first in the world to be powered entirely by solar energy, with a 40 MW capacity. It is proposed to operate hydrogen buses between Cochin International Airport and Thiruvananthapuram.
Indian Oil has committed to switching over to green hydrogen for at least 10% of its refineries’ hydrogen needs in the near future.
3) Gas Authority of India Limited
GAIL(India), a state-owned company, too, has lofty goals related to environmentally friendly hydrogen. To complement its natural gas business with carbon-free fuel, the corporation intends to construct India’s largest green hydrogen plant.
GAIL chairman and managing director Manoj Jain recently announced the company’s intention to hold a global tender for the purchase of an electrolyzer.
He also said that the corporation has settled on two or three potential locations for the plant, one of which is Vijaipur in Madhya Pradesh. The plant installation time is estimated at 12–14 months.
The projected plant will be the greatest in terms of capacity in the country, with a 10 MW (megawatt) output.
In one of the cities, GAIL has begun piloting the addition of hydrogen to natural gas. Before using a wider percentage of the mix, the company is conducting tests.
Fertilizer factories are mandated by law to utilize hydrogen as fuel, hence GAIL wants to sell the hydrogen it produces to these factories.
4) Adani Green Energy Limited
Solar Power, Wind Energy, and Hybrid Power Projects are all part of Adani Green Energy Ltd’s (AGEL) 25 GW goal for Renewable Green Energy by 2025.
A partnership agreement has been inked between the company and TotalEnergies of France to establish the largest green hydrogen ecosystem in the world. Over the next decade, the firm expects to pour $50 billion towards the development of green hydrogen and its supporting ecosystem. A green hydrogen production capacity of 1 million tonnes per year before 2030 will be the initial focus of this joint venture.
5) Larsen & Toubro Ltd
L&T, a global leader in engineering, is planning to enter the clean hydrogen market.
A green hydrogen plant is going to be built on the company’s Hazira site, and it should be finished by the end of the current fiscal year. The company also has ambitions to install other green hydrogen cells at its other production facilities.
Also, it’s looking at producing electrolyzers.
Subramanian Sarma, Director and Senior Executive Vice President (Energy) at L&T, suggested at a recent press conference that such a move was likely and might be announced as early as this fiscal year.
L&T stated in its most recent annual report that it plans to achieve zero net emissions by the year 2040.
Renewable energy, green hydrogen, and biodiesel are just some of the activities that might help counteract this, accounting for 90%, while building carbon sinks would account for the remaining 10%.
Over a period of years, the corporation aims to spend between Rs 10 and 50 bn on environmental activities.
6) NTPC Limited
The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has similar intentions to GAIL to begin commercial production of green hydrogen.
They intend to accomplish so from their soon-to-be-built 4,750 MW renewable energy park in the Rann of Kutch. The power generation facility will operate at a 5 MW capacity (megawatts).
Hydrogen is projected to cost between $2.8 and $3.3 per kilogram, and NTPC is conducting a trial project at its Vindhyanchal unit to test the technology. We anticipate a price drop as a result of scale economies in the future.
In addition, NTPC wants to build its first green hydrogen fueling station in Leh, Ladakh. To begin, only five hydrogen-powered buses will be in service. When completed, this green hydrogen-based mobility project will make Leh the first city in the country to do so. The green hydrogen initiative is only one example of NTPC’s ongoing efforts to reduce the company’s carbon footprint. NTPC has also advocated for the implementation of environmentally friendly hydrogen-based solutions in the transportation, energy, chemical, fertilizer, steel, etc. industries. Its new goal is to reach 60 GW of renewables capacity by 2032, approximately twice the previous goal.
Challenges ahead for the adoption of green hydrogen
Although new government policies and regulations for the electricity market are expected to spur green hydrogen development in the country, the industry still faces a number of obstacles.Hydrogen studies are generally underfunded in the country.
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy only received Rs 250 m (about $4.6 million) to do research and development on hydrogen in the NDA’s 2020-21 budget.
Alternatively, the German government has provided 700 million euros to businesses focusing exclusively on green hydrogen.
Furthermore, the electrolyser is the single largest expense in the process of creating green hydrogen. Sixty percent to seventy percent of the price tag comes from the membrane-electrode unit, while the remainder comes from the precious metals used.
This could be mitigated by increased manufacturing volume, but the current demand is too little to justify the investment.Transporting hydrogen is similarly expensive as a fuel. The gas must be cooled to a temperature of -252 degrees Celsius before it can be transported. Ammonia is a more stable form that may be kept, but the cost of converting it back is high.
What do developing countries need from industrialized nations to promote green hydrogen?
Deepak Yadav, of the Council on Energy, Environment, and Water (CEEW), a Delhi think tank, told The Third Pole that developing countries require funding and knowledge transfer to create their hydrogen infrastructure, as is the case with many other disruptive technologies. Within the next decade, his company predicts that India will attract investments worth $44 billion. But, he continued, it is equally crucial that developed nations provide access to cheap financing to help poorer nations weather the shift more easily.
Yadav noted that India’s manufacturers are teaming up with Western technology suppliers to mass-produce electrolyzers, a vital component of the hydrogen-generation infrastructure. The CEEW adds that rich nations, particularly those that lack the space for massive renewable energy systems, should be willing to buy green fuels and technologies made in developing nations.