Green fuels are touted as the best way forward to address global warming and extreme climate changes. Frequent droughts or floods, heat waves, melting glaciers and rapidly rising sea levels have been wreaking havoc on people’s livelihoods, especially in the last few decades. According to several reports, the adverse effects of changing weather patterns are only expected to intensify in the foreseeable future, and we need to be prepared more than ever.
By Tanya Rudra Editor at Green Steel World and Valve World India/Middle East
Climate action is the need of the hour. The world’s industrial powerhouses, who are largely responsible for disrupting the usual balance of nature, need to step up and lead by example. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprint are vital for the planet’s safe future. Therefore, as the third largest emitter in the world, India has a crucial role to play in the fight against the climate crisis.
India has its roadmap ready to emerge as a global leader of cleaner energy. There are noteworthy plans in place to make a clean energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources. Green hydrogen, one of the cleanest fuels known to mankind, is largely considered as the future of power generation and even transportation. The 100% clean fuel is produced when wind or solar power is used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.
The colour of hydrogen reflects the production technique used and the level of carbon dioxide emitted. For example, brown hydrogen is made using coal, whilst pink hydrogen is produced via electrolysis driven by nuclear power. Meanwhile, both grey and blue hydrogen are both generated from natural gas using a process called steam methane reforming (SMR) or auto thermal reforming (ATR); the difference being that with blue hydrogen, carbon dioxide released during reforming is captured and stored or used elsewhere.
India’s Energy Mission
In the country’s Union Budget of 2021-22, the National Hydrogen Energy Mission was announced, indicating that India has the capacity to become the cheapest producer of the most sustainable source of energy. The Mission, which offers a route to decarbonization for heavy industries, was launched on 15th August 2021 – India’s 75th Independence Day. According to the Ministry of Power, India plans to manufacture five million tonnes of green hydrogen every year by 2030, with an aim of becoming self-sufficient and eventually becoming the biggest exporter of the fuel. Abundant natural resources, favourable climatic and geographical conditions put the large developing economy with over 1.3 billion people in a favourable position to reach net zero emissions, thus becoming a global leader in fighting climate change.
As per the Green Hydrogen Portal, the Mission unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, aims to transform India into a pollution-free nation by promoting this cleaner source of energy. Moreover, the new policy offers 25 years of free power transmission for any new renewable energy plants set up to supply power for green hydrogen production before July 2025. It also promises an open access within 15 days of receipt of application.
While there are clear challenges related to investments in R&D, technology upgrades, and capacity building, the Mission aims to propel India as a key player in renewable energy.
Early March, PM Modi, in a post-Budget webinar on renewable energy said, “India has an inherent advantage in the form of abundant renewable energy power available. With this, India can become a global hub for green hydrogen.” He added that the hydrogen ecosystem relates to the fertiliser, refineries, and transportation sectors – an area in which the private sector should promote innovation, so that India’s full potential can be utilised.
In a 30-minute online session, titled ‘Energy for sustainable growth’, the PM reiterated that India is aiming for world domination as far as the production and export of green hydrogen is concerned.
Cut-price hydrogen?
As India embarks on a remarkable mission, billionaire Mukesh Ambani could be identified as one of the key stakeholders. Admitting that the dependency on fossil fuels will still continue for a couple of decades, the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Ltd believes that India has the potential to be the flagbearer of green energy. “While the world is still grappling with this, we have put our vision of exporting green energy out of India on the table,” Ambani said at Asia Economic Dialogue.
Ambani also stated that his group aims to offer green hydrogen at under USD 1 a kg within a decade.
While the production scale of green energy is far from being used for commercial purposes anytime soon, India has at least taken a step in the right direction. With the government’s backing and commitment of the country’s biggest industrialists, India’s green hydrogen initiative definitely has the potential to become the guiding light for a cleaner and greener world in the future.
Hydrogen-ready valves
The world’s hopes of becoming carbon neutral rely heavily on the production and use of green hydrogen. As the production and demand for cleaner fuel is bound to soar soon, extremely reliable hydrogen valves will be crucial in safe production, storage, transportation and use of the extremely flammable gas.
The valve design and manufacturing will have to withstand the challenges posed by hydrogen’s nature of making metal walls brittle and ensuring a leakage-free application.
In order for the world to become hydrogen-ready, valves capable of operating at high pressure and in high temperatures are an absolute necessity. Durability, a dependable shut-off and requiring a little maintenance effort are the prerequisites for a valve to be deemed fit to keep up with the rising demands of hydrogen.
A German company named Hartmann Valves claims to be hydrogen valve specialists and is already manufacturing highly reliable valves fit for hydrogen application. To read more about Hartmann’s preparation for the process of energy transition, please do read their article on sister website Hydrogen Tech World, at: https://hydrogentechworld.com/ready-for-hydrogen
About this Featured Story
This Featured Story is an article from our Valve World Magazine June 2022 issue. To read other featured stories and many more articles, subscribe to our print magazine.
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