A good read about Adani Green.
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Recently came across a good discussion on Green Hydrogen on CNBC. This sector definitely has tailwinds and the economics are becoming more viable.
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Not sure Green Hydrogen can ever be exported so all the talk about export boom is incorrect.
The answer to your question could be both Yes and No.
Yes because for producing Green hydrogen you need Renewable sources of energy Solar, Wind Hydro and open land mass for putting up solar and wind plant.
India has the unique advantage of (1) vast land mass of 33 million sq kms that is 3 times more than the entire European union (2) 300 Sunny days in a year and with great wind potential due to its unique climate - again it is among very few countries with maximum sunny days/ wind potential through out the year.
For example, Entire Europe has extended winter and there is hardly any sunny days and Japan hardly has any land mass to put up wind and solar plant… So these countries are definitely looking for importing Green hydrogen from India, given the seriousness of these countries to go green.
As of today, already India is the 5th largest producer of Solar energy and 4th largest producer of Wind energy in the world. (Source Ministry of renewable energy - link given below which gives statistics).
And if the Govt is fast and continue to push for Renewables and hydrogen and create a proper eco-system for production and export, it could materialize.or else we may fail.
The link below gives both solar and wind potential in India
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No, if life and science were only so simple.
The challenge in green hydrogen is not the green part, it’s the hydrogen part that is the problem.
How will you transport hydrogen over such large distances? What fuel would the ships use?
At 3x the price of grey or blue hydrogen, the cost of production itself is unviable and then add the fuel costs
Would it still be green hydrogen if it is transported using fossil fuels?
Cheers.
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When Natural Gas /CNG/Methane was introduced as a fuel, Science faced similar issues pertaining to storage and transportation.
Then science developed Cryogenic tanks / containers which can transport the Gas in form of LNG through ships from one country to the other. By the way, during 2021-22, India imported 32 Billion Cubic meters of Natural Gas from other countries.
In a similar way , Hydrogen can also be liquified and transported through cryogenic tanks. Apart from this Hydrogen can also be transported as Ammonia as a hydrogen carrier.
And Hydrogen is already being shipped through ships from Australia to Japan.
And the point that if the ship runs in fossil fuel , it is no longer green… is correct …but then if A car or a Bus can run on hydrogen , trains can run on hydrogen , why not ships ???
Yes , ships can too run on hydrogen and it is already running .
Cheers !
Ammonia as an effective hydrogen carrier and a clean fuel for solid oxide fuel cells - ScienceDirect.
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Not sure we can compare natural gas to hydrogen since we cannot produce natural gas and have to import it.
Hydrogen transport and use is a long way off and I understand the transport costs will be higher than the production costs itself.
Ammonia is not Hydrogen and dehydrogenation at user end is not established yet.
Anyways the point is India itself can use all the green hydrogen and become a low carbon economy in Industries which can use it immediately as it is. Why would India want to export it ? Given the prohibitive costs and challenges in transporting it.
Cheers
The point is both Natural Gas and Hydrogen - are Gases at atmosphere temp and pressure and thanks to the cryogenic technology by which it is possible to store both gases at liquid form @ - 160 to -260 degree C and thus both can be transported in Cryogenic tanks…
Ammonia as a Hydrogen carrier is only an alternate option which in fact is easier as storage and handling of Ammonia is already in place since Ages…Ammonia itself can be used directly as a fuel-technology for which is already available- and it serves the same purpose as of Hydrogen as fuel emitting Zero carbon. But to get pure hydrogen out of ammonia for electricity generation , it needs to dehydrogenated for which multiple options of technogy being explored keeping cost in mind.
India is in a better position to produce hydrogen due to the obvious reasons as discussed in the thread and whether we would like to accelerate our production capacity and export a part of it or not - it entirely would depend upon Govt decision- but the market for Green hydrogen will always be there from many other countries like Europe and Japan who are keen to switch to Green hydrogen and they donot have the advantages like India for producing Green hydrogen in a massive scale.
Let us look at how EV is getting introduced in spite of being more Expensive than diesel petrol engine vehicles…CNG vehicles were costlier than diesel/ petrol vehicles …CNG price has also gone up to Rs76 a kg as against Rs 35 a kg a decade back… but still we are now adopting the CNG technogy extensively…and today every Auto manufacturer is making CNG vehicles in large numbers- whether it is a car or a Bus or a three wheeler.
…when the entire world is working unanimously and wanting to switch to Green hydrogen…everything could be possible…cost…transport …technology…
…though all this are not going to happen tomorrow or day after tomorrow… it would be a gradual process…all alternate sources of energy may coexist for a decade …until economy of scales develops with advancement of technology.
But the journey towards carbon free world has already started !
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Apologies if this question has already been answered in this thread, but what are the listed entities which will be direct ( or indirect beneficiaries) of this trend.
Reliance ( green hydrogen capex planned) , everest kanto (cylinders), gujarat flouro ( intermediate chemicals ) etc come to my mind.
Regards,
Abhijit.
Will try to explain you in brief though this question has already been answered in the thread !
To understand Why the craze for Hydrogen will continue to grow and why is that companies like Tata’s, Adani’s, Reliance, L&T , JSW and many more listed/unlisted are betting Big on the entire Green Hydrogen value chain and what all companies would be involved in Green Hydrogen value chain, let us touch upon some basics:
(1) As a fuel, Hydrogen produces no carbon emissions- it burns with oxygen to produce steam and as a “Fuel Cell” (Electrolyser), it combines with oxygen from air to produce electricity- no carbon emissions involved.
(2) So, can it be used in Automobiles as a fuel? Yes, it can be used in 2 ways - (a)as a fuel cell to produce electricity which would drive the vehicle- you don’t need massive Li ion batteries. (b) As an internal combustion engine like CNG, petrol, diesel…technology is already available and hydrogen vehicles are running…but massive adoption may take time!
(3) For electricity generation- current thermal power plants use coal to produce electricity , emitting carbon dioxide…so Hydrogen can be used in large Electrolyser to generate electricity.
(4) Today , the largest consumer of Hydrogen across the world are (a) petroleum refining industry due to the need of hydrogen in different refining process such as hydro-cracking, hydro-isomerisation, hydro-dealkylation, and hydro-desulphurisation. Today, the need for hydrogen is being met either from natural gas or from heavy oil which involves carbon emission.
(5) The next largest consumer of Hydrogen are fertiliser plants across the world - they need hydrogen for producing ammonia urea- it is being met either from natural gas methane or coal or other process which involves carbon emission.
(6) The other consumers of Hydrogen are Steel plant - Blast furnace processes …and many manufacturing industry companies for metallurgical process…
(7) so the requirement all over the world is huge !
So how do we produce Hydrogen ? Hydrogen can be produced by many ways …(a) From coal - involves carbon emissions (b) From petroleum products - involves carbon emission (c) From Natural Gas methane - involves carbon emission (d) From Ethanol / methanol …involves carbon emission.
(8) However producing Hydrogen through electrolysis of water involves no carbon emissions. But for carrying out Electrolysis , you need electricity.
So now comes Green Hydrogen , if the electricity is generated through renewables like Solar or wind or Hydro and that electricity is used to carry out Electrolysis of water to produce Green Hydrogen which involves no carbon emission.
To decarbonise the entire economy of the world this Green Hydrogen is to be used as mentioned above under (1) to (6).
So , what all needed to produce Green Hydrogen ???
Solar, wind, hydro power producers and their supply chain vendors…apart from the Pvt space as mentioned in the first paragraph, there are several PSU’s have already started operations in this direction - NTPC, GAIL , IOCL/ BPCL/ HPCL, Coal India and many others.
Electrolyser/ Cell manufacturers and the related supply chain.
Hydrogen storage solutions
Auto industry in the long run
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It would help further if the companies in electrolysers/ supply chain etc with upcoming capex is given.
Thanks
Till now, big ticket Electrolysers were being imported.However, Some 6 manufacturers of Electrolyser have already started operations as per the link given below and many more may start in coming days, Govt has planned a PLI schemes for electrysers - details awaited.
Regarding supply chain vendors for Electrolysers- we need to work and find out the MSME’s involved.
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Ultimately the hydrogen you use has to come from a greener source, if the above mentioned trucks are run by “grey hydrogen” it beats the purpose of being environmental friendly
i meant to say bus, which has been referred to in the article. i typed trucks by mistake