Government Releases Guidelines for Green Hydrogen Use in Transport Sector

April 8, 2024

Recently, Indian Government has announced a Rs. 496 crore scheme (until 2025-26) to support pilot projects testing the viability of green hydrogen as a fuel for cars and heavy vehicles. The scheme, under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), aims to validate the technical feasibility, evaluate economic viability, and demonstrate safe operation of hydrogen-powered vehicles and refuelling stations.

Objectives of the MNRE Scheme

The main objectives of the MNRE scheme are:

Validation of technical feasibility and performance of green hydrogen as a transportation fuel
Evaluation of the economic viability of green hydrogen-powered vehicles
Demonstration of safe operation of hydrogen-powered vehicles and refuelling stations

Indian Industry Efforts

Major Indian commercial vehicle manufacturers such as Tata Motors, Volvo Eicher, and Ashok Leyland are ramping up research and development efforts and building manufacturing capacities to develop hydrogen-powered trucks and buses. Indian energy companies are also working on scaling up green hydrogen production and reducing costs to make it competitive with other fuels.

Benefits for India

India stands to gain significantly from the large-scale adoption of green hydrogen as a vehicular fuel, with potential benefits including:

Reduction of emissions to help combat global warming and climate change
Curbing pollution and meeting climate goals
Reducing costly fossil fuel imports
Becoming a global hub for the production and export of green hydrogen

Types of Hydrogen

Grey Hydrogen: Produced from natural gas through energy-intensive processes, with high carbon emissions. Currently, most hydrogen produced for industrial consumption is grey hydrogen.
Blue Hydrogen: Sourced from fossil fuels, but byproducts such as carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide are captured and stored, making it better than grey hydrogen.
Green Hydrogen: Produced using electricity generated from renewable sources such as wind or solar to electrolyse water. It is considered an end-to-end green fuel with water or water vapour as the only byproduct.

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles

Hydrogen can be used in vehicles through two main technologies:

Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) Vehicles: Utilize hydrogen through combustion, similar to diesel and petrol cars, but without carbon emissions.
Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEVs): Convert hydrogen stored in a high-pressure tank into electricity using a fuel cell, with water as the only byproduct. FCEVs are typically lighter than battery electric vehicles (BEVs) due to the lower weight of fuel cells compared to EV batteries.