BRICS lays stress on ‘Green Hydrogen’

The government and industry must work together to ensure existing regulations are not unnecessary barriers to investment, Union Power Secretary Alok Kumar said .

He was speaking at a virtual two-day BRICS Green Hydrogen Summit, anchored by state-run power giant NTPC.

“Government and industry must work together to ensure existing regulations are not an unnecessary barrier to investment,” Kumar was quoted as saying in a statement by NTPC.

He was of the view that trade will benefit from common international standards for safely transporting and storing large volumes of hydrogen and having appropriate certificate of origin.

BRICS countries could work together on these aspects, he added.

“India has launched an ambitious National Hydrogen Mission to introduce hydrogen purchase obligations for fertilizers, refineries involving private sector in transparent & competitive manner to produce green hydrogen,” Kumar noted.

Green hydrogen is of great topical interest to all the countries, including BRICS nations, as it has great potential to ensure sustainable energy supply, increase the level of energy availability and minimise the negative impact on the environment.

NTPC CMD Gurdeep Singh said, “Five BRICS countries share a common vision of sustainable development and inclusive economic growth. Strengthening energy cooperation and ensuring affordable, reliable, accessible and secure energy for all, has always been a strategic area of importance in the agenda of BRICS countries.” He opined that for India, the transition to a hydrogen economy will not only reduce its import dependency on hydrocarbon fuels but also provide clean air to its citizens, reduce GHG (green house gases) emissions in absolute terms and fulfil the country’s ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ vision.

The online event saw leading experts from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) share their insights on the subject as well as the latest developments going on in their countries in the area of green hydrogen.

The keynote speakers were Agnes M da Costa (Ministry of Mines & Energy, Brazil), Kovalev Andrey (Russian Energy Agency, Russia), Prakash Chandra Maithani, (Scientist, MNRE, Government of India), Fu Tianyi (National Energy Administration of China) and Makgabo H Tsiri (International Relations, National Department of Energy, South Africa).

These BRICS countries are capable of ensuring that there is net-zero carbon emission since the cost of deployment of these emerging technologies in these countries is a fraction in comparison to that of other developed nations, the statement said.

NTPC is pioneering green hydrogen Initiatives in India, it added.

As the world rapidly moves to decarbonise the entire energy system, hydrogen is poised to play a vital role and build on the rapid scale-up of renewable resources across the world. Hydrogen when produced by electrolysis using renewable energy is known as Green Hydrogen which has no carbon footprint, the statement said.

Green hydrogen has innumerable applications. Green chemicals like ammonia and methanol can directly be utilized in existing applications like fertilizers, mobility, power, chemicals, shipping etc.

Green Hydrogen blending up to 10 per cent may be adopted in CGD (city has distribution) networks to gain widespread acceptance.

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What is green hydrogen? 

Hydrogen fuel is considered environmentally-friendly since it does not produce the same waste as fossil fuels during production. But to produce usable hydrogen, it has to be separated from water, biomass (plant and animal waste), coal, or natural gas.

What is green hydrogen? Simply put, it is hydrogen fuel that is created using renewable energy instead of fossil fuels. It has the potential to provide clean power for manufacturing, transportation, and more — and its only byproduct is water.

Green hydrogen: an alternative that reduces emissions.

Green hydrogen is produced using renewable energy and electrolysis to split water and is distinct from grey hydrogen, which is produced from methane and releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and blue hydrogen, which captures those emissions and stores them underground to prevent them causing climate change.

The business case for green hydrogen requires very large amounts of cheap renewable electricity because a fair amount is lost in electrolysis. Electrolyzer efficiencies range from around 60 percent to 80 percent.

Hydrogen is easily produced from water by electrolysis, a process which uses electricity to break the bonds between water’s constituent elements, hydrogen and oxygen, and releases them as gas.

Currently, industrial production of hydrogen relies overwhelmingly on fossil fuels to power the electrolysis process.

TV BRICS reports with reference to Trinity Mirror.

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