India's "National Hydrogen Mission" notified
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India's National Green Hydrogen/ Green Ammonia Policy notified (to replace fossil fuels)
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- The story: The Ministry of Power notified the Green Hydrogen/ Green Ammonia Policy for production of Green Hydrogen or Green Ammonia using renewable sources of energy. Hydrogen and Ammonia are envisaged to be the future fuels to replace fossil fuels.
- Key points: PM Modi had launched the National Hydrogen Mission on India's 75th Independence Day 2021. The Mission aims to aid the government in meeting its climate targets and making India a green hydrogen hub. This will help in meeting the target of production of 5 million tonnes of Green hydrogen by 2030 and the related development of renewable energy capacity.
- Distribution licensees can also procure and supply Renewable Energy to the manufacturers of Green Hydrogen / Green Ammonia in their States at concessional prices which will only include the cost of procurement, wheeling charges and a small margin as determined by the State Commission.
- Waiver of inter-state transmission charges for a period of 25 years will be allowed to the manufacturers of Green Hydrogen and Green Ammonia for the projects commissioned before 30th June 2025. The manufacturers of Green Hydrogen / Ammonia and the renewable energy plant shall be given connectivity to the grid on a priority basis to avoid any procedural delays.
- The benefit of Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) will be granted incentive to the hydrogen/Ammonia manufacturer and the Distribution licensee for consumption of renewable power. To ensure ease of doing business a single portal for carrying out all the activities including statutory clearances in a time-bound manner will be set up by MNRE.
- Connectivity, at the generation end and the Green Hydrogen / Green Ammonia manufacturing end, to the ISTS for Renewable Energy capacity set up for the purpose of manufacturing Green Hydrogen / Green Ammonia shall be granted on priority.
- Manufacturers of Green Hydrogen / Green Ammonia shall be allowed to set up bunkers near Ports for storage of Green Ammonia for export/use by shipping. The land for the storage for this purpose shall be provided by the respective Port Authorities at applicable charges.
- The implementation of this Policy will provide clean fuel to the common people of the country. This will reduce dependence on fossil fuels and also reduce crude oil imports. The objective also is for our country to emerge as an export Hub for Green Hydrogen and Green Ammonia.
- The policy promotes Renewable Energy (RE) generation as RE will be the basic ingredient in making green hydrogen. This in turn will help in meeting the international commitments for clean energy.
- What is green hydrogen: How does it differ from traditional emissions-intensive ‘grey’ hydrogen and blue hydrogen?
- Hydrogen is the simplest element in the periodic table. No matter how it is produced, it ends up with the same carbon-free molecule. However, the pathways to produce it are very diverse, and so are the emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4).
- Green hydrogen is defined as hydrogen produced by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using renewable electricity. This is a very different pathway compared to both grey and blue.
- Grey hydrogen is traditionally produced from methane (CH4), split with steam into CO2 – the main culprit for climate change – and H2, hydrogen. Grey hydrogen has increasingly been produced also from coal, with significantly higher CO2 emissions per unit of hydrogen produced, so much that is often called brown or black hydrogen instead of grey. It is produced at industrial scale today, with associated emissions comparable to the combined emissions of UK and Indonesia. It has no energy transition value, quite the opposite.
- Blue hydrogen follows the same process as grey, with the additional technologies necessary to capture the CO2 produced when hydrogen is split from methane (or from coal) and store it for long term. It is not one colour but rather a very broad gradation, as not 100% of the CO2 produced can be captured, and not all means of storing it are equally effective in the long term. The main point is that capturing large part of the CO2, the climate impact of hydrogen production can be reduced significantly.
- There are technologies (i.e., methane pyrolysis) that hold a promise for high capture rates (90-95%) and effective long-term storage of the CO2 in solid form, potentially so much better than blue that they deserve their own colour in the “hydrogen taxonomy rainbow”, turquoise hydrogen.
- However, methane pyrolysis is still at pilot stage, while green hydrogen is rapidly scaling up based on two key technologies - renewable power (in particular from solar PV and wind, but not only) and electrolysis.
- Unlike renewable power, which is the cheapest source of electricity in most countries and region today, electrolysis for green hydrogen production needs to significantly scale-up and reduce its cost by at least three times over the next decade or two.
- However, unlike CCS and methane pyrolysis, electrolysis is commercially available today and can be procured from multiple international suppliers right now.
- What is Green Ammonia: Ammonia is a pungent gas that is widely used to make agricultural fertilisers. Green ammonia production is where the process of making ammonia is 100% renewable and carbon-free. One way of making green ammonia is by using hydrogen from water electrolysis and nitrogen separated from the air. These are then fed into the Haber process (also known as Haber-Bosch), all powered by sustainable electricity. In the Haber process, hydrogen and nitrogen are reacted together at high temperatures and pressures to produce ammonia, NH3.
- Summary: Production of these fuels by using power from renewable energy, termed as green hydrogen and green ammonia, is one of the major requirements towards environmentally sustainable energy security of the nation. The government is taking various measures to facilitate the transition from fossil fuel and fossil fuel-based feed stocks to green hydrogen and green ammonia. The notification of this policy is one of the major steps in this endeavour.
- EXAM QUESTIONS: (1) Examine the challenges in making green hydrogen a profit-oriented energy fuel in India. (2) What is National Hydrogen Mission? What are its key features? How may it help reach India its sustainable energy targets? Discuss.
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