Longi Green Enters Hydrogen Market

The World largest solar company Longi Green is to enter the Hydrogen Market. Longi Green is a Chinese company that manufactures solar panels, wafers and solar cells. Today several such solar companies are entering the hydrogen market. This is mainly because hydrogen is a carbon-free fuel that can be produced by electrolysis of water and then stored and transported and used in every possible machinery such as cars to electrical generators to steel mills.

Longi Green

Longi Green was founded in 2000. The headquarters of Longi Green is located in Xi’an, China. Longi Green has plants in India, Malaysia and China. In 2019, Longi Green brought 300 MW monocrystalline PV products to India.

Hydrogen Market in India

The Hydrogen market in India is valued at 50 million USD. It is projected to reach 81 million USD by 2025. In India, the major end use of hydrogen is in petroleum refining industry. Here, hydrogen is used to refine crude oil.

Though India is moving towards clean fuel, the high transportation and high storage cost is hampering the growth of hydrogen market in the country. However, the emerging liquid organic hydrogen carrier technologies (LOHC) will make storage and transportation of hydrogen easier.

Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carriers (LOHC)

They are organic compounds that can absorb and release hydrogen through chemical reactions. Thus, LOHCs are ideal for hydrogen storage and transportation.

In 2020, Japan built the first international hydrogen supply chain in the world using LOHC. It was built between Brunei and Kawasaki city using toluene based LOHC technology.

Working of LOHC

The dehydrated form of LOHC reacts with hydrogen in a hydrogenation reaction. The end product thus formed can be stored or transported under ambient conditions. Whenever hydrogen is needed the hydrogen rich form of LOHC is dehydrogenated.

Hydrogenation is an exothermic reaction and dehydrogenation is endothermic reaction.

Month: Current Affairs - April, 2021