Private sector aggressively pursuing production of green hydrogen: Hardeep Singh Puri at G20 event

Before long, at the rate at which we are going, petrol blended with 20 per cent of ethyl alcohol, also called ‘E20’, will be available at 1,000 outlets of oil marketing companies (OMCs) across the country, Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG), Housing and Urban Affairs announced on June 14, 2023.

Puri indicated that E20 fuel is being dispensed currently at 600 retail outlets already while speaking at the “India’s Role in the Future of Energy” event hosted by G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant in New Delhi. The MoPNG has not yet reached its target to scale it country-wide by 2025, but the idea is gaining momentum and people are getting used to it, he said.

The government has answered the question of the “chicken or egg” by going forward with its goals, he indicated, when it comes to the production of ethanol, from sugarcane and maize, among other crops.

“During our G20 presidency, we are pushing for a global biofuel alliance, which not only includes countries like Brazil but to also open it up to others as well,” Puri said at the event.

On green hydrogen, the Union minister said initially, the Hydrogen Mission’s targets of five million metric tonnes (mmt) per annum “looked ambitious and is ambitious”.

According to his periodical review meetings with stakeholders, the minister is convinced that this goal might even be exceeded, provided the sectors get their “act together”.

The reason he cited is that the government has provided six centres where six different ministries will look at hydrogen production on their own, such as the steel ministry separately, the MoPNG separately, and so on.

In addition to incentivisation through the Hydrogen Mission with an outlay of Rs 19,744 crore, the private sector is also pursuing green hydrogen aggressively, Puri implied.

There are private companies that have got billions of dollars of investment from outside, applied for land and manufacturing facilities for green hydrogen production, and contracted the supply of green ammonia to other parts of the world, Puri indicated.

Despite the push, green hydrogen production comes with its set of challenges, environmental portal Mongabay reported. Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Odisha will likely be the first takers of green hydrogen and some of the locations chosen suffer from water scarcity. For electrolysis, about 9 kilograms (kg) of water is required per kg of hydrogen.

According to a study by Corporate Europe Observatory, “the production of green hydrogen requires vast amounts of resources: land, water, and renewable energy. This can fuel land-use and water conflicts, human rights violations, energy poverty, and the delay of the de-carbonisation of the electricity grid in producer countries.”

At the same event, International Energy Agency Director Fatih Birol said, “Hydrogen is growing very strong and there is no country that is not looking at it very closely.” He called India a “hydrogen superpower”.

On trade protectionist measures deployed in certain countries, he implied that it depends on each country’s hydrogen demand, cost of production, and entrepreneurship that makes it possible to achieve their goals.

Besides helping us reach climate goals, the renewable energy sector is now integral to our economies and thus cannot be ignored, Birol indicated.

He also said the IEA is going to come up with a study soon on the concept of Lifestyle for the Environment (LiFE) that was introduced by India during the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

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