Green Hydrogen as a Fuel - Indian Companies leading the Green Revolution

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The Govt document duly signed dated 28 June 2023 for Electrolyser PLI is available in public domain. copy link given below.

Subsequently , SECL had invited tenders and a pre- bid meeting was held The last date of tender was 5th Sept. Results are yet to be announced.

https://www.seci.co.in/whats-new-detail/2463

In the mean time , there was a report that excess renewable energy generated from installed capacities of renewable energy from Solar / wind during peak day time is going waste at some places due to absence of grid connectivity.

Whatever installed electrolyser manufacturing capacities available in India and some imported - perhaps these are going for green hydrogen manufacturing and Green hydrogen is primarily required by fertilizer plants , petroleum refineries and other industries.

Moreover for Grid connectivity , apart from Electrolyser , you need fuel cell for conversion from hydrogen to Electricity at night hours. Currently fuel cells are imported and expensive and indigenous capacities would take time

So , we are in a fix. Renewable capacities are coming up very fast , but electrolyser , Fuel cell capacities are not in place.
While we have enough coal to power our thermal power to feed to the grid , but our very purpose of Decarbonisation would be hampered.

Therefore, to feed renewable energy for grid , alternate ways of renewable energy storage from day time for use in night hours has been found in the interim, though these may have their own limitations:

(1)Hydro electric pump storage : During day time when sun light is plenty , the excess electric energy is used to pump water from a lower/ underground reservoir to a higher elevated reservoir. During night , when renewable is not available , the water from the higher reservoir is allowed to flow in gravity to the lower tank through a turbine which could generate electricity …it is hydro electric.
It has already been implemented in a couple of places.

The disadvantage is that we don’t have water bodies every where to source water requirement which need to be topped up.
The advantage is that it is simple , cheaper.

(2) Battery storage solution :
This is easily available option , though bulky and equally expensive lithium ion battery pack. Cheaper version Sodium ion versions are also being explored.
So there is a PLI recently being announced for Battery storage solution.
Announcement in this regard is given in the link below this post- mostly govt looking for Greenfield Projects …not brown field.

Currently, a lot of companies such as Exide , Amar Raja etc are coming up with huge capacities of lithium ion batteries , but meant for mainly for Automobiles.

Grid scale Lithium ion batteries are planned by Reliance , Adani and few others , but will take time. However can be imported at short notice.

(3) Compressed air storage solution.
Day time renewable energy is used to compress air and kept in a air tank and later inthe night air is allowed to escape and fall on a turbine to generate electricity. This is also being explored.

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Thanks for sharing the info. I have checked the bids submission deadline has been extended to 05th Oct for both electrolysers and Green Hydrogen production

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Good round up but I would be surprised if any renewable power is going unused anywhere since most of them would be setup with a PPA and they would ensure grid connectivity.

Also right now demand is surging even in August and Sep catching keeping all the Discoms on their toes.

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Any PPA logically would contain 3 main clauses apart from other conditions :
(1) the amount of electricity to be supplied per day
(2) negotiated price per unit
(3) penalties for non-compliance.

So it has been grey area until recently. The power producer would tend to quote only for the amount of electricity it could produce in day time because of lack of Energy storage solutions for supplying in the night. Thermal power is always there to the rescue to feed the grid at night time when solar energy not available.
Thus is totally inefficient way of handling Renewable projects of high capital intensive nature as its full potential of power 24×7 is not exploited.

No wonder all renewable energy projects failed in the past and the industry became sick…Renewable energy sources were initiated way back in 1990’s and companies like NEPC Micon , Suzlon in wind and Tata-BP solar were pioneers.

Now there is clarity in technology for renewable storage solution options namely (1) Electrolyser / Green hydrogen/ Fuel cell (2) Battery storage (3) Pumped hydro storage (4) Compressed air storage . .
And there is clarity in Govt policy…and now it is mandatory for the power producer to instal energy storage solution ( refer link below) and PPA calls for Total power units to be supplied during day & night apart from negotiated rates and penalty etc

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Not true, presently all generators including renewable power have to submit forecasting and scheduling details to their SLDC and are penalized for deviations. There is no spare inefficient renewable power in the country as everything is connected to grid and used up. Green hydrogen and energy storage using renewable energy have a future and it maybe made or not made mandatory will be known only if prices come down further, present prices are still expensive.

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Renewable energy for example from solar is not available during night unless energy storage solution is installed available.
So , if a stand alone solar energy source is connected to the grid , it is capable of producing max energy output during day time and no energy output during night time leading to grid instability.
During Day time, the power requirement may be low at times, in spite of max output available and during night the power requirement may be high and power availability is zero.

That is why it is now mandatory to instal energy storage solution.

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Up to 10 per cent green hydrogen blended PNG to be “very economical” than LPG: NTPC

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What will be the ancillary play for hydrogen ?

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Screenshot_20230913-213105_Gmail
Screenshot_20230913-213105_Gmail1080×2316 175 KB

Sometimes there are some ‘authorities’ using muscle power to close a discussion, thus spoiling opportunities

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This link will throw some light to your question !

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Round the clock renewable energy @ Rs 6 per unit

https://www.business-standard.com/amp/india-news/round-the-clock-renewable-energy-will-cost-rs-6-per-unit-rk-singh-123091600044_1.html

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By the end of 2023, China will control half the world’s installed capacity of electrolysers

While we are racing ahead with Production of renewables at a time when Hydrogen Electrolyser capacities are yet to be built up to scale, the world is looking for BESS ( Battery Energy storage system) to store Renewable energy for using later and Li ion batteries with its high energy density quality are preferred choice.

However, As usual China seems to have understood it correctly. Li Ion battery rare earth elements which are scarce and found in a handful of nations is going to be in great demand both for EV & BESS.

They seem to be ready with Green hydrogen Electrolyser capacity . They would like to Rule the world with half the world’s requirement.

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Top 5 Renewable Energy Stocks to Watch Out in Nifty’s Run to 40,000

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Few comments with reference to the above post

Why many other renewable energy stocks are missing in the blog which you perhaps expected,?

Only large cap renewables players seems to have been considered.

Why IOCL is considered renewable player?

Among all PSU, IOCL is investing heavily in to green hydrogen , 2,G ethanol , CBG etc. or else they have to close and wind up their shops down

Why NHPC and SJVLM not appearing in the watch list though they are aggressively investing in to renewables solar wind hydro ??

True , but still they are mid caps. They may become large caps if the capex continues and they execute well. Both players are fully backed by finance co like PFC/ REC.

whether PFC REC are considered renewable players though not appearing in the watch list?

In my view, Both are proxy to renewables., but in midcap catagory…

Discl: I may have investments in some of these stocks discussed , hence I may be biased.
It is not a buy sell recommendation. Pl do your own assessment before investment.

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For Green Hydrogen , you need pure water. This is one of major requirement for Green hydrogen.
In this sense, I see Wabag as one of best company to invest.

Contrary views are most welcome .

Note: Invested in Wabag.

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In spite of being a Rain fed nation, monsoon is not always regular and with vast agricultural land we are always dearth of water not only for agriculture , even we lack potable drinking water, leave apart it’s commercial usage in industries such as mineral water , soft drinks etc and we need water for producing green hydrogen!

India has a vast V shaped coast line and we always have access to unlimited sea water.
desalination of sea water is definitely an option, though expensive at present , but given economies of scale , it could be explored.

Let us look at Electrolyser technology which would carry out the Electrolysis of water- do we need purest form of water ? Answer could be both yes & no.

As of today , we have 3 types of electrolysers (1) the good old Alkaline electrolyser which is 100 years old technology has reached its matured stage. it is cheap , uses less expensive conventional anode cathode technology. It uses highly conc KOH solution, corrodes fast, low life, not safe to use. But today it is still in use due to its simplicity and least expensive .
.Capable of using normal water , even sea water under study…

(2) PEM ( proton exchange membrane also known as polymer exchange membeane) electrolysers with H+ Diffusion, highly expensive due to expensive noble metals platinum, iridium , Ruthenium, High efficient , safe , but it would require the Purest form of water.
This has now reached commercial stage all over the world and Ohium in India has already started its operation.

(3) AEM electrolyser (Anion exchange membrane) OH - diffusion, It is in between both the world of expensive PEM and cheapest alkaline. it does not need expensive noble metals , so less expensive than PEM. AEM requires less expensive cobalt , nickel, fe, mn…needs just pure water may not require RO…
This is at an early stage of commercialisation.

There is another electrolyser called solid oxide which requires very high temp upto 500 degree …so still under R&D.

Technology is evolving very fast…Science is great …and our world is great Indian.talents are great…
IIT Chennai has developed an alkaline electrolyser which can take up raw sea water.
Why not ?.If india can send a rocket and land in South pole of the moon where no one had landed before !
I had seen another research paper where
NASA scientists have also endorsed and submitted a report that -yes Alkaline electrolyser can use sea water for electrolysis to produce hydrogen… it is the way to go…but still have a long way to go from laboratory to commercialisation.:frowning:

So please decide on your investment strategy :slightly_smiling_face:

IIT Madras scientists develop prototype to use seawater for … IIT Madras scientists develop prototype to use seawater for green hydrogen production

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Some useful links related to this pure water requirement topic for hydrogen production…

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Good article indeed.There is no denying that ultra pure water is a must as of date with the existing electrolyser technology.
But as I said technology is evolving very fast and I would not be surprised by another couple of years , raw water even sea water can be used for electrolysis
It is not only the efforts are on in India such as IIT Chennai , even NASA has also submitted its final research paper.

H2O Electrolysis With Impure Water Source—Final Report https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20230003630/downloads/TM-20230003630.pdf

Another point i wanted to add that many people are concerned for depletion of fresh water reservoir due to Hydrolysis of water in a massive scale. so, desalination of sea water for hydrolysis should be explored.

However, depletion of Earth’s water level due to massive electrolysis of water is not true.
When you extract hydrogen from water by electrolysis, Hydrogen is to be used in two ways.

(1) For direct Combustion as a direct energy source such as Hydrogen in IC engine. When hydrogen is burnt with oxygen / air , it releases back water as steam H2O to the atmosphere so water back to circulation in to our planet

(2) Hydrogen can be stored and used for producing electricity with help of Fuel cell when needed as in case of Power Grid integration.
In such a situation again , the bye product is water…back to system

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India proposes Green Hydrogen Cities.

The government has identified seven states to designate as hydrogen cities with an aim to integrate hydrogen technologies into various sectors such as transportation, industry, and power generation. The states are :

  • Sikkim,
  • Andhra Pradesh,
  • Rajasthan,
  • Maharashtra,
  • UP,
  • Chattisgarh,
  • Gujarat

Out of these, Sikkim will be hydel power-based, Chattisgarh solar-based, and Gujarat will be based on solar and wind energy. Whichever city has the big potential for generating renewable energy, that city tends to be qualified for the “hydrogen city” tag. It is because renewable energy, in abundance available at affordable rates, is required to produce green hydrogen. More states and cities will be identified for the prestigious tag.

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