Green Hydrogen: Is It a Solution for Net Zero Emission Need of Our Planet?

Green hydrogen is hydrogen generated from renewable sources of energy. In a far-sighted move, India has launched an ambitious Hydrogen Mission in August 2021 and further the Indian government announced the Green Hydrogen Policy in February 2022. In this article, Lata Vishwanath says that production of clean/green hydrogen gas is being seen as the answer to climate change mitigation in the decades to come. Because of its vital role in oil and gas industry, refineries, fertilizers, and a host of other applications as an energy carrier the world can be made less dependent on fossil fuels.

- Lata Vishwanath

Following the launch of National Hydrogen mission in August 2021, the Indian government announced Green Hydrogen policy in February 2022. The policy for meeting the decarbonization goals towards net zero emissions by 2050 is in line with the UN climate targets of capping the earth’s temperature to 1.5°C as pledged by India and other countries at COP26 summit in Glasgow in November 2021.

The policy comes with a host of benefits for industry leaders keen to install green hydrogen plants and develop its value chain. As the Indian government’s policies worked in favour of renewable energy sector to develop over the last decade, the following decades are expected to see green hydrogen becoming the key driver to the nation’s economy and to the rest of the world.

Hydrogen: An Overview

Hydrogen produced from water as a potential source of energy was envisioned by writer Jules Verne in 1874. Though scientists had been working towards making the fiction a reality, hydrogen didn’t get much boost after oil gained popularity as a mainstay fuel in the 20th century. Some experiments proved disastrous, and hydrogen was looked at as a light and highly flammable gas, with its storage at room temperatures a challenge.