National
R&D Roadmap for National Green Hydrogen Mission unveiled
⇒ On the eve of World Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Day, the Government of India held a half-day event to explore and leverage the boundless possibilities of hydrogen as a source of green and sustainable energy.
- The event, organized in New Delhi on October 7, 2023, by the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy, in association with Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited, brought together hydrogen experts from the industry, academia and government.
National Green Hydrogen Mission:
» On the occasion, the R&D Roadmap for the National Green Hydrogen Mission was unveiled by the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy.
- The roadmap, which provides for a budget of Rs 400 crores, seeks to provide guidance for developing a vibrant research and development ecosystem which can help commercialize Green Hydrogen and contribute to India’s ambitious climate and energy goals.
- It focuses on developing new materials, technologies, and infrastructure to improve the efficiency, reliability, and cost-effectiveness of green hydrogen production, storage, and transportation.
- The R&D program will also prioritize safety and address technical barriers and challenges in developing a hydrogen economy.
Launch of National Single Window System page for Approvals under National Green Hydrogen Mission
» Besides the R&D roadmap, the Green Hydrogen page on The National Single Window System (NSWS) of Government of India was unveiled.
- It will provide a single window to industry for obtaining all approvals related to projects under the National Green Hydrogen Mission.
Roundtable meeting:
» A roundtable meeting was organised by the Ministry in association with Department of Financial Services (DFS), Ministry of Finance, to create synergy between banking system and green hydrogen developers in order to facilitate access to low-cost finance and thus to lower the cost of green hydrogen.
- The meeting was attended by officials of MNRE, DFS, SECI, IREDA, NITI Aayog, members of Indian Banks’ Association, leading nationalised and private sector Banks, Financial Institutions and leading developers in green hydrogen sector, among others.
Annual Joint HADR Exercise 2023 (AJHE-23) – (CHAKRAVAT 2023)
⇒ The Annual Joint HADR Exercise 2023 (AJHE-23) ‘CHAKRAVAT’ hosted by Indian Navy from 09-11 October 2023 at Goa.
» AJHE-23 concluded with a Multi-Agency Capability Demonstration at Mole Berth, within the Port of Mormugao, to showcase drills on rescue and relief.
- A Multi-Agency Capability Demonstration was conducted on 11 October.
- Teams from NDRF, Indian Navy, Indian Air Force, Indian Coast Guard and State Fire Services, Goa participated in the demonstration.
Participation:
AJHE-23 witnessed participation from various national agencies namely, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), National Institute for Disaster Management (NIDM), Indian Army, Indian Navy, Indian Air Force, Coast Guard, Indian Metrological Department (IMD), National Remote Sensing Agencies (NRSA), State Disaster Management Agency (SDMA) and State Fire Services, Goa, District Disaster Management Agency (DDMA) of North and South, Goa, Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Central Water Commission (CWC), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and representatives from Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
- Representatives were also present from eight friendly foreign countries viz. Comoros, Madagascar, Maldives, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, Sri Lanka and Tanzania.
Key Points:
- AJHE-23 commenced with a Seminar on 09 October to discuss synergy in response to climate change and associated disaster adaptation and mitigation. Emergent topics namely, Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction: Practical Solution, Disaster Response in IOR: A Collaborative Approach, and NGO Collaboration in Disaster Reduction and Response: An Integrated Approach were discussed during the seminar.
- On 10 October, a Table-Top Ex with reps from all participating agencies and delegates from eight friendly foreign countries was conducted as a capstone event of AJHE-23 at INS Hansa. The Ex deliberated a scenario of cyclone making landfall at Goa resulting in flooding and widespread destruction of infrastructure upto 100 km hinterland from the coast. Participating agencies discussed and presented joint plans for rendering humanitarian assistance.
- An Industrial Display was also organised by FICCI on 10 October in coordination with Indian Navy to showcase ready to export HADR equipment manufactured by both public and private sectors.
» The discussions amongst the participants over the three days of the exercise enabled improved understanding of the capabilities of each organisation and paved a path for better coordination between various agencies during an HADR scenario.
Logo for AJHE-23:
The Logo for AJHE-23 depicted crests and logos of all participating agencies and flags of all nations subsumed into one single entity to signify that HADR will hinge on joint and integrated action by the all the agencies.
Background:
» The Annual Joint HADR Exercise (AJHE) is an outcome of Hon’ble PM’s directive promulgated during Combined Commanders’ Conference-2015.
- Since its first edition in 2015, the Annual Joint HADR Exercise, CHAKRAVAT, has transformed itself into a multi-agency endeavour involving participation of all three Services, Paramilitary Forces, as well as several disaster response organisations, NGOs, academic institutions and international organisations.
- The exercise has been conducted by Indian Army, Indian Navy (IN) and Indian Air Force (IAF) in rotation since 2016.
- The last edition of the exercise was conducted at Agra by IAF.
Need:
» Developing collective and coordinated effective response mechanisms to address humanitarian crises and natural disasters are one of the most visible elements in India’s inclusive vision for the oceans – SAGAR, or Security And Growth for All in the Region.
- Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations form a key component in the Indian Navy’s Benign Role, as climate change has significantly increased vulnerability of the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) to natural disasters.
- The challenge posed by climate change is accentuated by the limited capacity of littoral IOR states to address this rapidly growing threat.
- Therefore, Indian Armed Forces have been frequently called upon to render assistance to our friends and partners in the Region, thereby, strengthening the need and our resolve to be the ‘First Responder’ in the region.
- While the three Services continue to provide relief and succour in the event of a calamity, a whole of government approach would further enhance our preparedness and response to such unfortunate events.
Important Day
World Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Day 2023
⇒ World Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Day is celebrated annually on 8 October.
World Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Day is a global initiative aimed at promoting awareness and understanding of hydrogen as a clean and sustainable energy source, along with the versatile technology of fuel cells.
- This day serves as a platform to acknowledge the potential of hydrogen and fuel cells in addressing the pressing challenges of climate change, energy security, and environmental sustainability.
History:
- World Hydrogen Day is an annual opportunity to recognise the role of hydrogen in the transition to a cleaner, more sustainable energy future.
- The date of World Hydrogen Day was chosen for a reason that is both numerical and curious: the atomic weight of this chemical element is 1.008, which in turn can be represented as 10/08 on the calendar.
- The US Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association (FCHEA) created this event in 2015 to recognise the importance of clean hydrogen, which is produced with zero or near-zero emissions.
About Hydrogen:
» The potential of hydrogen is enormous, firstly because it is the most abundant chemical element in the universe.
- It is the main component of stars and gaseous planets, but it is rarely found in its pure state on Earth. It is often combined with other elements such as oxygen in water (H2O) or carbon in hydrocarbons (CH4, C2H6, etc.).
- To obtain renewable hydrogen, it is necessary to extract it from the water molecule (H2O) through the process of electrolysis.
- Renewable hydrogen is emerging as a key energy vector for the energy transition with a wide range of potential applications. It is the solution to decarbonise so-called “hard to abate” sectors.
Hydrogen can be classified into several types based on the feedstock required to produce it and the CO2 emissions it can generate.
» Green hydrogen: Green hydrogen is produced by electrolysis of water using electricity generated from renewable energy. Green hydrogen does not emit CO2 in its production.
» Blue hydrogen: The process of obtaining blue hydrogen involves the use of hydrocarbons. From compounds such as methane, for example, a chemical process called “reforming” is carried out to obtain hydrogen on the one hand, and carbon dioxide on the other. Every tonne of blue hydrogen produced emits 1 tonne of CO2.
» Grey hydrogen: Grey hydrogen comes from fossil fuels: it is produced from natural gas or other light hydrocarbons such as methane or liquefied petroleum gases by reforming processes.
- It is used in the refining and fertiliser industries. Although it is obtained in a similar way to blue hydrogen, carbon dioxide emissions are not controlled so pollution is higher. Each tonne of grey hydrogen produced emits 9 tonnes of CO2.
- Currently, 99 % of the hydrogen consumed in Spain is grey hydrogen, with CO2 emissions.
Other types of hydrogen:
- Brown or black hydrogen: produced through the gasification of coal.
- Turquoise hydrogen: obtained by gasification of hydrocarbons through a pyrolysis reaction, a thermal degradation at very high temperatures in the absence of oxygen.
- Pink hydrogen: uses electricity generated in a nuclear power plant for electrolysis.
- Violet hydrogen: follows the same process combined with heat and thermochemical reactions.
- Yellow hydrogen: the electricity used for electrolysis comes from mixed sources (from renewable energies to fossil fuels).