Oil India Limited (OIL) has taken the first significant step towards Green Hydrogen Economy in India with the commissioning of India’s First 99.999% pure Green Hydrogen pilot plant at its Jorhat Pump Station in Assam.
Context
Oil India Limited (OIL) has taken the first significant step towards Green Hydrogen Economy in India with the commissioning of India’s First 99.999% pure Green Hydrogen pilot plant at its Jorhat Pump Station in Assam.
Key-points
- The plant in Assam is also the first in India to use the anion exchange membrane (AEM) technology.
- AEM technology is being used for the first time in the country
- Green hydrogen will be being produced from the electricity generated by a 500-kW solar plant using a 100-kW AEM electrolyser array.
- Installed capacity: The pilot plant has an installed capacity of producing 10 kg of gas per day.
About Hydrogen
- Hydrogenis a clean alternative to methane, also known as natural gas.
- Hydrogen gas can be used as a fuel in transportation, power generation and industrial activities.
- It does not release greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide.
- Production: Hydrogen can be produced from a variety of domestic resources, such as natural gas, nuclear power, biomass, and renewable power like solar and wind.
- The vast majority of industrial hydrogen is currently produced from natural gas through a process known as steam methane reforming or SMR.
- Producing hydrogen in this way is sometimes referred to as brown or grey or even blue hydrogen.
- Green hydrogen, which has the potential to replace fossil fuels, is the name given to hydrogen gas produced using renewable energy such as wind or solar power that do not entail greenhouse gas emissions.
Types of Hydrogen
- Brown Hydrogen: Most of the gas that is already widely used as an industrial chemical is either brown, if it's made through the gasification of coal or lignite.
- Grey Hydrogen: If it is made through steam methane reformation, which typically uses natural gas as the feedstock. Neither of these processes is exactly carbon-friendly.
- Blue Hydrogen: Where the gas is produced by steam methane reformation but the emissions are curtailed using carbon capture and storage.
- Green Hydrogen: Green hydrogen, in contrast, could almost eliminate emissions by using renewable energy — increasingly abundant and often generated at less-than-ideal times — to power the electrolysis of water.
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Advantages of Green hydrogen
- Environment Friendly: Green Hydrogen as an energy source is seen as the next big thing as its usage would lead to zero emissions.
- Potential to decarbonise various sectors: It is a clean burning molecule, which can decarbonise a range of sectors including iron and steel, chemicals, and transportation.
- Efficient utilization of Renewable Energy: Renewable energy that cannot be stored or used by the grid can be channelled to produce hydrogen.
- Reduced Dependence on Rare Minerals: Green Hydrogen also holds the key to clean electric mobility that doesn’t depend on rare minerals. Green Hydrogen helps achieve long-term vision of reduced dependency on minerals and rare-earth element-based batteries as energy storage.
- Helps Achieve Paris Goal: Green hydrogen energy is vital for India to meet its Nationally Determined Contributions and ensure regional and national energy security, access and availability.
- Energy Security: Green energy helps reduce import dependency on fossil fuels.
Current status
- At present, less than 1 percent of hydrogen produced is green hydrogen, according to IRENA's World Energy Transitions Outlook.
- India consumes about six million tonnes of hydrogen every year. This could increase to 28 million tonnes by 2050.
- India has favorable geographic location and abundance of sunlight and wind for the production of green hydrogen.
- India will become a net exporter of green hydrogen by 2030 due to its cheap renewable energy tariffs, according to the Global Hydrogen Council.
