Let's Explore Episode 3: Green Hydrogen- A Gamechanger

A newsletter on Economics, Business, Geopolitics, Sports and Technology with simple case studies and daily life examples

In March 2022, Nitin Gadkari sir surprised the entire nation as he arrived at the parliament in a hydrogen-powered car. This was not just a gimmick but a clear indication to the people of India that Hydrogen fuel is the future. Ambani and Adani, both business tycoons of India, are investing heavily in green and blue hydrogen; tata is also planning to build hydrogen-powered buses in India. So before talking about the Green hydrogen and its advantages over the Lithium-ion batteries, we must know the reasons behind India’s aggressive stand on renewable energy.

Why is India Aggressive toward renewable energy sources?

There are three prime reasons; first, India is heavily dependent on the middle east for oil, which costs massive foreign exchange reserves(forex), and makes us highly vulnerable to oil shorts in any geopolitical tension.

Secondly, the world realised that climate change is not a hoax, So India, along with 193 Nations, signed the Paris pact, in which India targeted to cut down its 50% carbon emission by 2030.

And last but not least, Steel and Chemical two biggest Industries of not only India but the world, don’t have any renewable substitutes, so whoever manages to run these Industries profitably with renewable energy will become the exporter of renewable energy and ultimately get the significant power to command the global politics, and green hydrogen is exceptionally crucial for the same as it produces enormous energy with zero-emission.

What is Hydrogen Fuel, and what is the meaning of different shades of hydrogen?

When listening to the term hydrogen fuel, many of us interpret it’s an energy source, but it’s not solid hydrogen is not the fuel, but it’s a carrier of energy. I will explain it later. First, let’s understand the meaning of the different shades of hydrogen.

 Hydrogen is named by different prefixes based on its method of production mentioned below:

1. Grey Hydrogen: Produced through the conversion of natural gas in the presence of steam with CO2 as a by-product. The overall process is referred to as steam methane reforming (SMR). The hydrogen produced is considered grey as fossil fuels are consumed, and CO2 emissions occur. So this method is unsuitable for the goal of net-zero emissions.

2. Blue Hydrogen: carbon capture technology is used in the SMR process. Even though the process still relies on fossil fuels, 90-95% of the CO2 emissions are captured.

   The carbon emissions from hydrogen generation could be reduced by CCS but not eliminated. Moreover, these processes use methane, which brings leakages upstream, and methane is a much more potent GHG per molecule than CO2. This means that while blue hydrogen could reduce CO2 emissions, it does not meet the requirements of a net-zero future. For these reasons, blue hydrogen should be seen only as a short-term transition to facilitate the uptake of green hydrogen on the path to net-zero emissions.

3. Turquoise Hydrogen: Its production combines natural gas as feedstock with no CO2 output. Through pyrolysis, the carbon in the methane becomes solid carbon black. A market for carbon black already exists, which provides an additional revenue stream. Carbon black can be more easily stored than gaseous CO2. But, at the moment, turquoise hydrogen is still at the pilot stage.

4. Green Hydrogen: Produced via electrolysis, where water is converted into hydrogen and oxygen using electricity. When renewable electricity is used as input, hydrogen is indicated as green because there is no consumption of fossil fuels and no CO2 emissions.

5. Purple Hydrogen: Its production method is the same as green hydrogen, but Nuclear energy is used in the electrolysis rather than renewable energies. 

So now we can understand that hydrogen cells just carry energy. First, hydrogen is produced through different processes such as electrolysis, and then it’s stored and used for various purposes.  

Why are we talking about Green Hydrogen Now?

The earlier Production cost of renewable energy was significantly high; therefore, despite knowing about the electrolysis for decades, we didn’t consider green hydrogen a viable energy source. But, in the past ten years, there has been a significant change in the renewable energy sector. In this period, although the cost of nuclear has increased by 26%( from 123$ to 155$ per MW), the cost of coal reduced by less than 2%( from 111$ to 109$ per MW). However, the price of Wind energy dropped by 70%( from 135$ to 41$ per MW), and the cost of Solar energy drastically reduced by 89%(  359$ to 40$ per MW). So now renewable energy looks cheaper than traditional fossil fuels, and in future, we are expecting more drops in the cost of solar energy production. And suddenly, this opened the door for electrolysis and green hydrogen production as viable options.

What problems will Green Hydrogen solve for the Indian Economy?

Green Hydrogen will be enormously important for the following two significant Industries:

1)Transportation: In the transportation industry, hydrogen-powered cars can bring a revolution; let’s compare an EV with a hydrogen-powered vehicle: firstly, An EV gives 450-500km of range, but its lithium-ion battery takes 400-600 litres of space in our cars. Still, the same range can be achieved by using a fuel cell and hydrogen storage tank using just 100 litres. Secondly, Hydrogen fuel tanks have an energy weight ratio of ten times greater than lithium-ion batteries. So we can use more hydrogen fuel cells to increase the range of the vehicles, but in the case of EVs, adding more lithium-ion batteries will significantly increase the vehicles' weight. After some time, it will become counterproductive. Third,  Even our most advanced EVs like the tesla model S give 80km of range with the charging of half an hour, in the case of a regular AC charger, it will require 4 hrs of charging for the same range. But, in the case of hydrogen fuel, even a truck with a payload of 34 tons and 400km range gets recharged in just 8 minutes. 

The above factors will restrict lithium-ion powered EVs for just personal passenger vehicles. However, hydrogen fuel will be a better alternative for massive commercial and heavy-duty utility vehicles like taxis and trucks because a taxi driver can’t stop for 4hrs to charge his car or drive just  150 Kilometres a day. But Hydrogen fuel cells can be used for not just taxis but also trucks with hundreds of tons and approx one thousand kilometres of range. And therefore, hydrogen fuels can revolutionize the transportation industry and save hundreds of millions of carbon emissions every year. 

2. Steel Industry: Due to climate change EU is planning to propose a tax called carbon border tax for the countries which are not curbing their carbon emissions. India is 2nd biggest producer of steel and exported 20.63 million tons of steel in 2021 alone. Steel is superpower for Indian exports but it’s one of most polluting sector in the contry. It includes 12% of India’s total fossil fuel emissions. And use of gray hydrogen for steel production is responsible for this high emission. Since demand for the indian steel is rising if we will not stope using gray hydrogen these emission due to steel thrice in next three decads which cause a carbon border tax on indian produce ultimately resulting our defeat by someone else in steel production. This is the reason which makes mendatory for India to shift from gray hydrogen to blue and green hydrogen for steel production.

Similarly, hydrogen is essential for the chemical industries, oil refineries, propellant fuel, semiconductor industry, etc. This is why green hydrogen is critical for India and every country in the world. But there are some challenges.

Challenges in the adoption of green hydrogen:

There are many challenges in adopting hydrogen fuel; first, the costs of green hydrogen as a fuel are very high. The cost per kilometre for hydrogen fuel is three times that of Lithium-ion EVs, so its use in the transportation sector is not viable. Similarly, for Steel Industry, green hydrogen costs 500 Rs per kg, but grey hydrogen costs just 150 Rs per kg. Therefore according to experts, green steel will become viable until 2030 in the best case with optimistic estimates.

Secondly, Just like Lithium-ion battery uses Lithium and cobalt, Hydrogen fuel cells need Platinum and iridium, which are again rare metal and their extraction cause a lot of harm to the environment.

Thirdly, Storage of green hydrogen is also a considerable problem and last but not the least, the round trip efficiency of hydrogen is around 40-50%. This means by using hydrogen fuel only; we can get only 40% of the energy as output from the total energy used in its production. This means 50-60% of energy is wasted.

Solutions:

But with the help of proper research, technical upgrades and government incentives, it’s possible to reduce the coasts of green hydrogen to make it viable for its use in transportation and various Industries. Also, there are possibilities that in the next few years, we will come up with alternative metals and alloys that will come as a breakthrough for green hydrogen applications. Also, we need to research more to increase the efficiency of hydrogen. Because with the technical development, green hydrogen will be viable for us, and it can solve our many problems.

If you liked my article, please give a heart to it, for any feedback feel free to comment and for more such articles please subscribe to my newsletter.