56
FUEL CELLS
Future Fuel: hydrogen and fuel cell technologies Hydrogen and fuel cell technologies hold a promise of diverse applications from clean transportation to heat and clean energy. Dr V K Saraswat, Member of the NITI Aayog and former Secretary of the Department of Defense R&D, sheds light on hydrogen and fuel cell technologies and opportunities for India.
I
ndia is the world’s third largest energy consumer. The current demand for imported fuels is significantly outpacing domestic production and the country is being forced to spend valuable foreign capital to procure additional energy resources. Hydrogen is a concentrated primary source of energy which can be conveniently made available to the consumer. It is one of only a few potential near-zero emission energy carriers, alongside electricity and advanced biofuels. Nonetheless, it is important to note that hydrogen is an energy carrier and not an energy source; although hydrogen as a molecular component is abundant in nature, energy needs to be used to generate pure hydrogen. This abundantly available element can be converted through highefficiency conversion processes to various forms of energy. Hydrogen is an inexhaustible source, if it is
Dr V K Saraswat
obtained electrolytically from water. It is easiest and cleanest fuel, which upon combustion is almost entirely devoid of pollutant emissions. In addition, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles use 40-60 percent of the fuel energy with a fuel consumption reduction of 50 percent.
The hydrogen economy
The talk about hydrogen economy has been going on since the 2000s. Earlier efforts were made to produce hydrogen from nuclear cycles but now there is an emphasis on bio and bio-inspired production. Hydrogen produced from bio or bioinspired sources will lead towards increased de-carbonization of hydrogen production making fuel cell a viable alternative for transport and distributed power generation applications by the year 2040. Hydrogen finds various uses in automotive fuel cells, consumer electronics, and stationary electricity and in heat generation applications. While the promise of hydrogen as a future fuel is well known, a major challenge remains its cost. In the last decade, the cost of fuel cell has come down to $50-60/ kW from $3000/ kW. It is projected that by 2050, 13 percent of total energy demand will be for hydrogen, resulting in an annual CO2 reduction of 7.5Gt in 2050, and annual sales of $4,000 billion for hydrogen and hydrogenrelated technologies. So we see that hydrogen not only benefits the energy system but also the environment and business. Depending on the generation, transmission, distribution and retail pathway, the carbon footprint of hydrogen can vary between almost 20 and more than 230 gCO2/MJ, as
| May-June 2020
per the reports from IEA. For all its simplicity, we have historically not been able to unlock hydrogen’s full energy potential. Unlike other energy sources, hydrogen is tough to extract, store, transport and utilize. Therefore, so far, hydrogen remains merely a niche ‘energy carrier’ that is used for very specific and niche applications.
Hydrogen production
Hydrogen may be drawn from fossil fuels and wood, water, or a combination of both. Natural gas is currently the primary source of hydrogen production, accounting for roughly three quarters of around 70 million tons of global annual dedicated hydrogen production. Hydrogen production accounts for about six percent of global natural gas utilization. Fuel costs are the biggest cost component, representing between 45 percent and 75 percent of the cost of production. Low gas prices in the Middle East, Russia and North America are triggering some of the lowest cost of hydrogen production. Gas importers like India have to deal with higher gas import prices, resulting in higher production costs for hydrogen, as per IEA. According to IRENA, the bestcase supply of renewable hydrogen may be economical today, but other typical conditions require further cost reductions. The lowest-cost wind and solar projects can deliver hydrogen at a cost comparable to that of fossilfuel hydrogen. Figure 1 shows the costs of producing hydrogen from renewables and fossil fuels today. The data suggest that even today, though only in very specific situations, CO2 -free renewables could be among the cheapest sources of hydrogen.
