India has launched numerous green hydrogen pilot projects to produce 8 million tonnes of green hydrogen by 2030, according to R.K. Singh, the Union Minister of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and Electricity.
The pilot projects include a 6 kilogram per hour green hydrogen production project based on biomass gasification at IISc Bangalore and a 5 Nm3/h (normal cubic meter per hour) green hydrogen production project based on solar energy and electrolysis in Gurugram, Haryana. Both programs, according to the minister, fall under the ministry’s research and development division and are intended to help boost the nation’s currently meager production of green hydrogen.
The National Green Hydrogen Mission, which would assist the demand development, production, consumption, and export of green hydrogen, was approved by the Union Cabinet earlier this year with an initial outlay of ₹197.4 billion ($2.39 billion).
The project seeks to construct a green hydrogen ecosystem, advance and scale up its production technologies, and make it widely available and inexpensive. The minister also provided information to Parliament regarding a few other green hydrogen production pilot projects that have been put up around the nation but are not directly under the control of the MNRE.
At its Jorhat Pump Station in Assam in April of last year, Oil India, a government-owned company, put into operation the only pure green hydrogen pilot plant in the nation with an installed capacity of 10 kilograms per day.
The first green hydrogen blending project in India was launched in January of this year by NTPC and Gujarat Gas at the NTPC Kawas township in Surat, Gujarat. A green ammonia project by ACME in Bikaner, Rajasthan, to manufacture green hydrogen at a rate of 500 Nm3/h, or around 175 tonnes annually, is also included in the pilot programs.
The minister also said that the Indian government has not provided any funding for any of these experimental initiatives. At its AM Naik Heavy Engineering Facility in Hazira, Gujarat, Larsen, and Toubro has begun producing 45 kg of green hydrogen per day for internal use, according to a Mercom article. The low-cost, environmentally friendly alternative to commonly used fossil fuels is green hydrogen.
Investors and power producers in India are becoming more interested in green hydrogen. Singh has said that India is considering using green hydrogen to play a key role in achieving the 500 GW non-fossil capacity target.
The Department of Science and Technology and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in Germany signed a letter of intent in February of this year to work together on hydrogen and other sustainable technologies for the long term.
Also, the European Investment Bank and the India Hydrogen Alliance inked a memorandum of understanding under which they will each contribute €1 billion ($1.06 billion) towards the construction of extensive green hydrogen hubs and projects all over India.
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Source: Mercom India
