Hydrogen?nature?s bounty, which is available in abundance?has the potential to help resolve the global energy crisis. India has already joined the global quest to find ways to harness this valuable resource for large-scale commercial application.
India is one of the founder members of the International Partnership for Hydrogen Economy, along with Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, the UK and US. All these countries are pursuing their own research, development and demonstration programmes with sizeable budgets. India participates in the partnership?s steering committee meetings.
For its part, India has set up a National Hydrogen Energy Board (NHEB), with public-private partnership under the chairmanship of the Union minister for new & renewable energy sources Vilas Muttemwar. The NHEB?s steering committee under the chairmanship of noted industrialist Ratan Tata and with the help of five expert groups formulated the National Hydrogen Energy Road Map for the country on November 21, 2005.
The road map envisaged an ambitious plan for 1 million hydrogen-fuelled vehicles on the roads by 2020, which includes 7,50,000 two- and three-wheelers, 1,50,000 cars and taxis and 50,000 vans and buses. It also called for decentralised hydrogen-based power generation of about 1,000 mw aggregate capacity by 2020, which includes 50 mw internal combustion engine-based stand alone generators, 50 mw fuel cell-based stand alone power packs and 900 mw centralised power plants.
Hydrogen has a high gravimetric energy content of 120.7 MJ/kg, which is the highest for any known fuel. However, its volumetric energy content is rather low. This poses challenges for developing safe and effective capacities for storage and transportation. Hydrogen can be used be either directly as a fuel to produce mechanical and electrical energy in internal combustion engines or in fuel cells to generate electricity for stationary, portable and transport applications. When burnt in air, hydrogen produces water as a by-product and does not produces carbon dioxide?this offers the advantage of hydrogen being an environmentally benign fuel and an efficient energy carrier. However, at high temperatures, hydrogen produces nitric oxide.
There have been several demonstration and pilot projects around the world that have proved the efficacy of hydrogen energy and fuel cell technologies, but most of these are suitable for small-scale operations. The challenge before the world is to harness this natural bounty for commercially viable large-scale operations, which includes production, safe storage, transportation and delivery, evolving hydrogen safety codes and standards, hydrogen applications, public awareness and capacity building.
In addition to the existing methods of hydrogen production based on steam methane reformation, the National Hydrogen Energy Road Map has proposed the production of hydrogen through nuclear thermo-chemical water splitting and also through solar energy, photo-electrochemical and photolytic routes, coal gasification and carbon dioxide sequestration routes and from biomass, biological and renewable sources.
It has suggested hydrogen storage in inter-metallic hydrides, complex hydrides like alanates, amides, clatherates, liquid hydrides, carbon nano-structures, glass microspheres, zeolites, and high-pressure hydrogen tanks. It has also suggested the development of internal combustion engines for hydrogen fuel and proton-exchange membrane and solid-oxide fuel cell technologies.
Many scientific institutions in the country are exploring the possibilities of viable hydrogen production from different sources. They include Shri AMM Murugappa Chettiar Research Centre, Chennai, from industrial waste containing sugar; Benaras Hindu University, Varanasi, from bacteria in bagasse and laboratory-scale hydrogen production via the photo-catalytic route, IIT, Kharagpur, from Enterobacter cloacae IIT-BTO8 through the fermentation route.
BHU is working on the development of hydrogen storage in metal hydrides. The Central Electrochemical Research Institute, Karaikudi, and Spic Science Foundation, Tuticorin, are developing a portable hydrogen generator. IIT, Delhi, is developing a dual-fuel compression ignition engine that would use hydrogen as one of the fuels, Rajasthan University is developing polymer membrane gas filter for hydrogen purification.
Jadavpur University, Kolkata, is developing a hydrogen-fuelled agriculture pump set. IIT, Chennai, is developing hydrogen storage facilities. Bhel is developing proton-exchange membrane fuel cell technologies, and the Central Glass & Ceramic Research Institute, Kolkata, is developing a solid-oxide fuel cell technologies system.