New Delhi: India is planning to make use of its compressed natural gas (CNG) grid and infrastructure to reduce the transportation cost for Hydrogen, said Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan. While addressing a Hydrogen round table titled 'Hydrogen Economy: New Delhi Dialogue-2021,' organised by The Energy Forum (TEF) and Federation of Indian Petroleum Industry (FIPI), Pradhan said that India is also planning to run buses on Hydrogen-blended CNG as fuel across Indian cities. "50 buses in Delhi are plying on blended hydrogen in CNG on a pilot basis. We plan to scale it up in the coming months across the major cities of India," Pradhan added.
"We are working on a pilot project on Blue Hydrogen, Hydrogen CNG (H-CNG) and Green Hydrogen," said the minister, while adding that India is looking towards various colours to kick-start the hydrogen ecosystem development. "The utility of hydrogen is not going to be limited only to the transport sector. The maturity of the ecosystem can be accelerated through its usage as a decarbonizing agent for a range of sectors, including industry covering chemicals, iron, steel, fertilizer and refining, transport, heat (domestic & industrial) and power," Pradhan said.
The round-table discussion was also attended by UAE's Industry and Advanced Technology Minister Sultan bin Ahmad Sultan Al Jaber, Australia's Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction Angus Taylor, Denmark's Climate, Energy and Utilities Minister Dan Jørgensen and US' Deputy Energy Secretary David M Turk.
The news comes in the backdrop of India looking to diversify its sources of crude oil in order to align its energy security with its strategic interests. After the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) refused to ease production cuts, India had asked its state-run refiners to reduce oil import from the OPEC and look towards other sources. The development and usage of Hydrogen as fuel can be a game-changer for India, which meets over 80 percent of its crude requirements and 50 percent of its natural gas requirement through imports. However, one of the major challenges faced by the energy sector is to bring down the cost of production of Hydrogen in order to make it economically viable.
In 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced plans to launch a National Hydrogen Mission, under which fertilizer, steel and petrochemicals industries will be mandated to use green hydrogen. A Cabinet note in this regard has already been prepared and is expected to be placed before the Union Cabinet for approval soon.
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