A long journey, but the future is bright

Today, the world is pressed with a dilemma – to constantly meet the growing energy demand while minimising the climate impact. This calls for a global effort of transitioning to a clean, sustainable and low-carbon energy system. Businesses across industries as well as major stakeholders have started recognising green hydrogen as a potential new fuel that can replace oil and gas.

Green hydrogen is believed to be the fuel of the future but how does one start today and turn this belief into a reality tomorrow? It begins with a supply chain leading to an efficient and economically-sustainable ecosystem. And to build a resilient and reliable supply chain, challenges of production, deterioration, durability, density, and electrical power capacity must be overcome.

 A sustainable energy carrier: Green hydrogen is certainly more efficient and sustainable than other fuel sources available today. However, its adoption and scalability depend on significant infrastructure investment, including digital and advanced engineering capabilities. In India, the public and private sectors have started taking steps to assess, maintain, and maximize the said efficiency.

State-owned National Thermal Power Corporation and Gas Authority of India have announced various infrastructure-related projects contributing to the supply chain and ecosystem of green hydrogen. Private organisations in the energy space too have pledged to ramp up their efforts of green hydrogen production. Reliance Industries has laid a roadmap to reduce the cost of the fuel to $1 per kg in the country.

Technology companies will also play a strategic and crucial role in optimising the green/low-carbon hydrogen supply chain. Innovative ideas and best practices discovered by others must be comprehensively applied to strengthen the resilience and dependability of the hydrogen value chain.

Addressing the engineering challenges – plant design, fuel storage, transportation and distribution, development of smart grid and low-cost and sustainable fuel cells – is a precursor to large-scale commercialisation and deployment of green hydrogen. Digital engineering can help solve these problems.

Innovation enabling transition: The development of green hydrogen and its supply chains banks on how well technology will be leveraged and incorporated in the existing processes. When it comes to production, innovations in electrolysis technology will expedite the use of renewable energy sources (solar, wind, and hydro), improve efficiency and reduce costs. Advanced catalysts lowering the required energy-input, large-scale projects making hydrogen economically viable and integrated value chains will greatly aid the production of green hydrogen. Digitalisation using the digital twin technology and software automation can help optimise the operation of electrolysis systems and shrink maintenance costs.

Mass production of green hydrogen mandates rapid scaling of electrolyser manufacturing. Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms and data intelligence can optimise the complex production process by predicting and controlling parameters. This will also increase efficiency, safety and quality, while reducing capital expenditure and accelerating the time to market. AI-enabled power and process simulation also provide insights for decision-making around investment, source of renewable energy, plant capacity and carbon footprint.

The journey to net zero: The future of green hydrogen holds significant promise for the global transition to a low-carbon economy. It will allow decarbonisation of major industries that have often been challenging to electrify directly and depend on the use of fossil fuels, including heavy industry, aviation, shipping, petrochemicals and certain forms of transportation. With the use of hydrogen combustion engines and hydrogen fuel vehicles, sustainable mobility can also be achieved.

Technology and innovation alone cannot enable the commercialisation of green hydrogen. Policy support and incentives such as financial aid, regulatory frameworks and targets for renewable hydrogen production are a requisite for stimulating investments and market growth. With the aim to become energy-independent by 2047 and hit its net-zero goal by 2070, the government has been encouraging the production of green hydrogen.

And to make it a nationwide practice, it has announced the National Green Hydrogen Mission to produce 5 million tonnes of the sustainable fuel annually and make the country a global green hydrogen hub.

As part of their corporate commitment to sustainability, many organisations have been working on decarbonising their operations. Green hydrogen is a key element in their sustainability strategies, thus increasing the demand for the fuel and boosting investments in relevant projects. The journey to the net-zero destination is a long one but green hydrogen is a major milestone in the right direction.