Context
India aspires to emerge as the leader of green hydrogen by taking advantage of the current energy crisis across the globe.
- Oil India Limited (OIL) has commissioned India’s first 99.99% pure green hydrogen plant in eastern Assam’s Jorhat.
What is Hydrogen?
- Hydrogen is the lightest, simplest and most abundant member of the family of chemical elements in the universe.
- It is colourless, odourless, tasteless, non-toxic and highly combustible gaseous substance.
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What is Green hydrogen?
- Green hydrogen is the one produced with no harmful greenhouse gas emissions.
- It is made by using clean electricity from surplus renewable energy sources, such as solar or wind power, to electrolyse water.
- Electrolysers use an electrochemical reaction to split water into its components of hydrogen and oxygen, emitting zero-carbon dioxide in the process.
- Green hydrogen currently makes up a small percentage of the overall hydrogen, because production is expensive.
How much green hydrogen is India producing?
- India has just begun to generate green hydrogen with the objective of raising non-fossil energy capacity to 500 gigawatts by 2030.
- It was on April 20, 2022 that the public sector OIL, which is headquartered in eastern Assam’s Duliajan, set up India’s first 99.99% pure green hydrogen pilot plant.
- Research and development efforts are on-going for a reduction in the cost of production, storage and the transportation of hydrogen.
Advantages
- Hydrogen can be used to produce electricity using fuel cells.
- Hydrogen, thus, can act as an energy storage device and contribute to grid stability.
- The oxygen, produced as a by-product (8 kg of oxygen is produced per 1 kg of hydrogen), can also be monetised by using it for industrial and medical applications or for enriching the environment.
