Shri Pradhan says Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas is committed to augment the hydrogen supply chain infrastructure in the country
Union Petroleum and Natural Gas & Steel Minister Shri Dharmendra Pradhan today said that India is looking towards various colors to kick-start the hydrogen ecosystem development. Addressing the Hydrogen RoundTable on “Hydrogen Economy: New Delhi Dialogue – 2021”, he said that in India, we have taken various initiatives with respect to the greater use of hydrogen in India’s energy mix. Government of India recently announced the National Hydrogen Mission in the Union Budget 2021 for making a hydrogen roadmap for the country. “We are working on a pilot project on Blue Hydrogen, Hydrogen CNG (H-CNG) and Green Hydrogen. Through technological advancements, we are blending hydrogen with compressed natural gas for use as transportation fuel as well as an industrial input to refineries. 50 buses in Delhi are plying on blended hydrogen in Compressed Natural Gas on a pilot basis. We plan to scale it up in the coming months across the major cities of India.”
The minister said that Energy is integral to support our fast-growing economy, and we are developing an energy sector which will be growth-centric, industry-friendly and environment-conscious. He said that we have the onerous task of ensuring energy justice and to end energy poverty in the country. This requires ample access to affordable energy to improve the lives of Indians coupled with the need to have a smaller carbon footprint Shri Pradhan said that by establishing synergies with natural gas, hydrogen can be easily adopted in the energy mix without seeking major infrastructural overhauling. “We are looking forward to introduce H-CNG as an intermittent technology in a big way for both automotive and domestic cooking applications.”
He said that Our refineries are planning to leverage the available surplus hydrogen capacities in gray form for meeting the initial demand in mainstreaming hydrogen. “One of such projects is underway at our Gujarat refinery of Indian Oil wherein the combination of hydrogen production through natural gas and its hyphenation with the carbon capture technology will result in the production of blue hydrogen. Multiple buses powered by fuel cells will be covering various iconic routes. Efforts are underway to leverage the vast CNG pipeline infrastructure to reduce the transportation cost of hydrogen.”
Posted On: 15 APR 2021 4:18PM by PIB Delhi