National Hydrogen Mission:
India has announced a National Hydrogen Mission. The proposal in the Budget will be followed up with a mission draft over the next couple of months.
- And while proposed end-use sectors include steel and chemicals, the major industry that hydrogen has the potential of transforming is transportation — which contributes a third of all greenhouse gas emissions.
- In October, Delhi became the first Indian city to operate buses running on hydrogen spiked compressed natural gas (H-CNG) in a six-month pilot project.
- The buses will run on a new technology patented by Indian Oil Corp for producing H-CNG — 18 percent hydrogen in CNG — directly from natural gas, without resorting to conventional blending.
- IOC is also planning to set up a dedicated unit to produce hydrogen to run buses at its R&D center in Faridabad.
- As a supporting regulatory framework, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways late last year issued a notification proposing amendments to the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, to include safety evaluation standards for hydrogen fuel cell-based vehicles.
