MISSION GREEN HYDROGEN

TARGETING 5 MILLION METRIC TONNES OF GREEN HYDROGEN PER ANNUM BY 2030, ONE-FIFTH OF GLOBAL PRODUCTION, INDIA HAS SET ITS EYES ON BEING A MAJOR PRODUCER AND EXPORTER. HERE'S HOW CORPORATE INDIA IS READYING WITH ITS MOVES

- P.B. Jayakumar

VISITORS TO VARANASI will soon get a travel experience of a lifetime on the Ganga—a voyage on India’s first hydrogen fuel cell (HFC)-powered catamaran, an air-conditioned twinhull yacht for 100 passengers. Public sector ship builder Cochin Shipyard, which built India’s first indigenous aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, has already started fabrication work. The Fuel Cell Electric Vessel (FCEV) is a pilot for use of zero emission water vessels for carrying cargo and passengers.

At Vadodara in Gujarat, public sector Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has started India’s first commercial scale hydrogen storage and fuelling station, similar to a petrol pump. Hydrogenpowered buses will take visitors from Vadodara to Statue Of Unity on banks of Narmada at Kevadia.

National Thermal Power Corporation’s (NTPC’s) subsidiary, NTPC Renewables, plans to operate five hydrogen fuel cell buses in Leh, Ladakh. Amara Raja Power Systems is setting up a green hydrogen fuel station for this.

In August 2022, India’s first indigenously developed HFC bus, made by CSIR’s National Chemical Laboratory and KPIT Technologies, was launched in Pune. It was a demonstration project for the feasibility of running buses powered by hydrogen.

Indian Railways is getting ready to run 35 hydrogen-powered trains at a cost of ₹80 crore per train on various heritage and hill routes. A pilot to fit diesel electric multiple unit rakes with HFCs will soon start on Jind–Sonipat section of Northern Railway.