Hydrogen can be extracted from fossil fuels and biomass.
It is a more environmentally friendly alternative to methane, generally known as natural gas. It is the most accessible chemical element, accounting for 75% of the universe’s mass.
Water, plants, animals, and humans contain massive amounts of hydrogen atoms. While it is found in practically all molecules in living things, it is extremely rare as a gas, with less than one part per million by volume.
Hydrogen may be created using a range of resources, including natural gas, nuclear power, biogas, and renewable energy sources such as sun and wind. The difficulty comes in utilising hydrogen as a gas on a huge scale to power our homes and industries.
The positive aspect is that hydrogen can be transferred through gas pipelines, reducing disturbance and the amount of expensive infrastructure required to establish a new hydrogen transmission network. There would also be no need for a culture shift in our homes, since people are accustomed to utilising natural gas for cooking and heating, and hydrogen energy equivalents are emerging.
Various kinds of hydrogen:
1. Green Hydrogen
In order to produce green hydrogen, water is electrolytes using clean electricity generated from renewable energy sources, such as solar or wind energy. Water is divided into its component parts, hydrogen and oxygen, by electrolysers using an electrochemical reaction; this method produces no carbon dioxide.
Because it is exceedingly expensive to produce green hydrogen, it presently only makes up a small portion of total hydrogen. The cost of green hydrogen will decline as it becomes more accessible, much as the cost of electricity from wind has decreased.
2. Blue Hydrogen
The major source of blue hydrogen is natural gas, which is converted into the gaseous form of steam through a process known as steam reforming. Although carbon dioxide is a byproduct, the output is hydrogen. Therefore, carbon capture and storage (CCS) is crucial for capturing and preserving this carbon.
3.Grey Hydrogen
Grey hydrogen is produced from natural gas, or methane, via steam methane reformation.
This method of producing hydrogen is the most typical one at the moment.
4. Brown and Black Hydrogen:
Gasification is used to create black hydrogen (derived from black coal) and brown hydrogen (made from brown coal).
In the hydrogen spectrum, black and brown hydrogen are the complete opposite of green hydrogen and are the most harmful to the environment. Black or brown hydrogen is any hydrogen produced by the ‘gasification’ of fossil fuels.
5. White Hydrogen
White hydrogen, which is produced by fracking, is a type of naturally occurring geological hydrogen that may be found in subsurface deposits. Fracking is digging into the ground before directing a high-pressure water combination at the rock to liberate the trapped gas. The rock is injected with high pressures of water, sand and chemicals, allowing the gas to flow out to the well’s head.
Demand For Hydrogen:
Today, providing hydrogen to industrial customers is a significant global industry. The worldwide demand for hydrogen, which has increased more than triple since 1975, is still on the rise. To produce hydrogen, 6% of the world’s natural gas and 2% of its coal are used.
As a result, the generation of hydrogen results in annual CO2 emissions of around 830 million tonnes, which is equal to the combined emissions of the United Kingdom and Indonesia.
The Applications For Hydrogen:
Hydrogen is a pure fuel that, when used in a fuel cell, generates only water, power, and heat. Hydrogen and fuel cells have the potential to play a key part in our national energy plan, with applications in almost every sector—transportation, commercial, industrial, residential, and portable. Hydrogen and fuel cells can provide energy for a variety of applications, including distributed or combined heat and power; backup power; systems for storing and enabling renewable energy; portable power; auxiliary power for trucks, aircraft, rail, and ships; specialty vehicles such as forklifts; and passenger and freight vehicles such as cars, trucks, and buses.
What type of vehicle are fuel cell electric vehicles?
The propulsion method used by FCEVs is comparable to that of electric cars, with the fuel cell converting hydrogen-stored energy into electricity. These automobiles don’t emit any hazardous exhaust emissions, unlike those powered by traditional internal combustion engines. Other advantages include boosting the economy and diversifying the U.S. energy supply to increase energy resilience.
How Do Hydrogen-Powered Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles Operate?
Fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) operate similarly to all-electric cars in that an electric motor is powered by electricity. In contrast to conventional electric cars, FCEVs generate their own electricity using a fuel cell fuelled by hydrogen, as opposed to relying solely on batteries.
Although automakers could design an FCEV with plug-in capabilities to charge the battery, the majority of FCEVs today use the battery for energy recovery from braking, additional power during brief acceleration events, and to smooth out the power delivered from the fuel cell with the option to idle or turn off the fuel cell during low power needs.
The size of the hydrogen fuel tank affects how much energy can be stored aboard. This contrasts with an all-electric car, where the amount of power and energy available are both strongly correlated with the size of the battery.
Compared to gasoline-powered vehicles, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are equally silent, highly energy efficient, emit no pollutants, and have an identical range and performance. Range, refuelling time, emissions, power, and performance are valued car attributes according to drivers.
List Of India’s Top Greenest Hydrogen Producing Companies.
1.Adani Green Energy Limited.
By 2025, Adani Green Energy Ltd. (AGEL) wants to develop 25 GW of renewable green energy, including solar, wind, and hybrid power projects.
To create the largest green hydrogen ecosystem in the world together, the firm and TotalEnergies of France have inked a collaboration agreement. The corporation intends to invest USD 50 billion in green hydrogen and the surrounding environment over the following ten years. This joint venture will initially create a 1 million tonne annual green hydrogen production capacity before 2030.
2. Reliance Industries Ltd.
By 2035, Reliance Industries wants to rank as the top producer of blue hydrogen fuel with ZERO emissions in the entire globe. The business wants to be at the top of India’s list of companies producing green hydrogen energy.
With hydrogen, wind, solar, fuel cells, and batteries as its primary energy sources, RIL’s New Energy Business aims to achieve the ideal balance of dependable, inexpensive, and sustainable energy solutions.
3. NTPC Ltd.
The centrally controlled energy production company, NTPC, recently decided to expand into some environmentally friendly business ventures by creating green hydrogen. Hydrogen will be produced by a floating solar installation employing a 240kW solid oxide electrolyzer.
4. Indian Oil Corporation Ltd.
The race for green hydrogen is being closely followed by Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). They have made the decision to switch to hydrogen fuelling for at least a tenth of their fossil fuel usage. They’ve made the decision to build refineries in Mathura and Panipat. By 2025, they hope to generate 5 GW of power from renewable sources.
A contract to provide the electrolyzers needed to produce green hydrogen was also inked by IndianOil and L&T.
5. Larsen and Toubro Ltd.
In the Gujarati area of Hazira, L&T intends to build its green hydrogen plant. They intend to generate 45 kilograms of renewable hydrogen there every day. The 990kW DC capacity and 500kW Battery Energy storage system will supply energy to this manufacturing sector. 15% hydrogen will be mixed with natural gas during the procedure. By 2025 and 2030, they aim to be carbon and water neutral, respectively.
6.ONGC
In July of this year, ONGC Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited and M/s Greenko ZeroC Private Limited (Greenko) inked an agreement to work together and investigate environmentally friendly options for producing green hydrogen, green ammonia, and other derivatives of green hydrogen.
For the duration of this Memorandum of Understanding, Greenko, an Indian supplier of renewable energy, will assist ONGC’s green drive. This deal supports the National Hydrogen Mission, which aims to make India a centre for green hydrogen on a worldwide scale.
7. GAIL
In the Guna region of Madhya Pradesh, GAIL plans to build the biggest green hydrogen plant in India by the end of 2023.
They want to establish a PEM-based project that would enable the daily production of 4.3 tonnes (10 MW capacity) of green hydrogen, which will be mixed with natural gas and provided to industry. The greatest energy production in the nation is this 10 MW output. For use by fertiliser production facilities, this fuel can be sold.
8. JSW Steel.
10,000 billion rupees would be invested in renewable energy, according to JSW Steel. JSW Energy, a subsidiary of JSW Steel, has joined up with an Australian business to work on the possible project. There aren’t many specifics provided by the firm, but we want to see them grow in the green industry.