Excerpts from the article:
India to be ready with hydrogen energy for transport sector by 2020
Monday July 16 2007 14:38 IST
PTI
MUMBAI: India will be ready with hydrogen fuel for its transport sector as a major alternative to fossil fuel by 2020, according to scientists. Hydrogen will be ready in terms of production, storage and supply chain to be used in the transport sector by the end of the next decade, they said.
Various laboratories in the country are developing different technologies of production, storage and transportation and “we are sure that by 2020, India can use hydrogen as an alternative fuel,” Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), director, Dr S Banerjee said.
“It can also be used in fuel cells to generate electricity for stationary, portable and transport applications,” he said.
On long-term supplies, he said nuclear and /or solar based water splitting which is a clean technology are being developed. They are centralised hydrogen production by water splitting process using nuclear heat (thermo-chemical process of high temperature steam eletrolysis) and distributed hydrogen production by water splitting processes using solar energy and BARC is mostly concentrating on the nuclear and to some extent solar route while other institutions are on immediate and mid term supplies.
Institutions like Banaras Hindu University, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL), Council of scientific and industrial research (CSIR), Department of science and technology (DST) are also doing research in the same field besides BARC.
The other organisations Gas authority of India Ltd (GAIL), Indian oil corporation Ltd (IOC), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE), Murugappa Chettiar research centre, National Thermal power corporation Ltd (NTPC) and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) are also engaged in the research to run vehicles with hydrogen fuel by 2020. NHERM has identified research, development and demonstration efforts to be undertaken in the country for bridging the technological gaps in different areas of hydrogen energy, including its production, storage, transportation and delivery, applications, safety, codes and standards and capacity building for the period up to 2020, Banerjee said.
“The NHERM has recommended two major initiatives for promoting the use of hydrogen as a fuel for green transportation and green power generation,” Banerjee said.
NHERM had also visualised that by 2020, one million hydrogen fuelled vehicles, mostly two and three wheelers and 1,000 mw aggregate hydrogen based power generation capacity would be established in the country.