By: Deepak Pahwa – Chairman, Pahwa Group & Managing Director, Bry-Air
As the ramification of climate change intensifies, India is poised to ramp up its Green Hydrogen Mission. With the world seeking sustainable energy solutions to address the issue of global warming and its impact on the environment, green hydrogen emerges as a cornerstone for facilitating a seamless transition to clean energy. It is a source of clean energy that comes with the ability to replace fossil fuels in transportation and industrial processes.
Green hydrogen plays an instrumental role in decarbonizing the industries by reducing the carbon emissions of the sectors across the country. Additionally, it drives the energy independence of the country by steering away from fossil fuels, significantly contributing to the energy security of the country at the same time. As a result, the advantages of green hydrogen transcend to boosting economic resilience as well, apart from curbing the carbon footprint of the industries.
However, before venturing into the journey, the industry should focus on integrating air-to-water generator (AWG) technology into the production of green hydrogen processes. Here, it is important to understand that the production of green hydrogen involves splitting water into its constituent elements Hydrogen (H2) & Oxygen (O2) with the help of electricity. In the process, it is mandatory to supply ultra pure and clean water to the electrolyser; as a result, though there are many sources of water, deriving clean water from them can be very complicated. On the contrary, AWG is responsible for generating white water, which is 100% pure and clean water. Therefore, water extracted from atmospheric moisture by making use of advanced adsorption technology is preferred for the green hydrogen process.
There are many sources of water available for electrolyser, including sea water, river/ lake water, wastewater/ brackish water, groundwater, municipal supply, and white-water generator. Where sea water involves desalination and distillation processes, it uses high amount of energy and is even responsible for producing highly concentrated brine. It is majorly a byproduct of the desalination process which is quite challenging when it comes to disposing it off.
Similarly, river/ lake water undergoes pre-treatment and distillation, utilizing less energy, and faces the challenge of seasonal limitation. In wastewater/ brackish water, there is a need to conduct filtration, reverse osmosis, and distillation, which are huge energy guzzlers and require extensive pre-treatment and produce high waste output.
Likewise, groundwater and municipal supply require filtration and distillation processes that involve lesser utilization of energy. Here, where groundwater causes the depletion of water tables, municipal supply accounts for straining the community resources. Moreover, all the water sources do not conform to net-zero potential and are not ethical at the same time. On the other hand, the white water generator undergoes adsorption process making use of medium energy which supports the net-zero cause and is ethical at the same time. It can generate water by making use of renewable energy and is well adept at extracting even in arid and semi-arid areas round the clock.
This, in turn, strengthens the prospects of India in shaping the future of hydrogen as it overflows with abundant renewable resources. Capitalizing on the opportunity, the country launched the National Green Hydrogen Mission aimed at making India a leader in the production, usage, and export of green hydrogen. Where it focuses on accelerating the utilization of green hydrogen across the sectors, it is also determined to achieve production of 5 million metric tons of green hydrogen every year by 2030.
Deploying air-to-water generator (AWG) technology empowers the electrolysis process by extracting water directly from the air. Other mechanisms, such as harvesting water through cooling by employing refrigeration cycle are not conducive for most of the time across the year. Therefore, AWG is a source of ethical water as it does not deprive the communities of water and generates it from moisture ubiquitously present in the air that preserves natural resources. In the process it promotes equitable access for communities and vouches for sustainable and net-zero principles.
The process of extracting water majorly depends on two factors, which involve humidity and temperature, where the moisture extracted from the air is cooled down to its dew point. This is an important step in initiating condensation of water vapour, which is later collected as water. The technology works best in high temperature and high humidity conditions; however, employing advanced adsorption technology helps in facilitating water extraction even in arid or semi-arid conditions. Making use of special adsorbents, it is adept at operating in relative humidity (RH) as low as 5-25%, prevalent in arid and semi-arid regions.
Gauging the benefits, AWG is considered an ideal solution that aims at producing water for electrolyser. Along with this, the technology is at the forefront of exhibiting eco-friendly practices, which further fortifies the entire purpose of introducing green hydrogen for marking the shift towards clean energy.
With India making significant strides in establishing its leadership in green hydrogen, it is the need of the hour that the country builds a resilient infrastructure with AWG technology. This will significantly contribute to scaling the production of green hydrogen at commercial level. Furthermore, considering that AWG does not require extensive infrastructure and being extracted at the site, it reduces the wastage of water due to transportation.
As a result, looking at the wide gamut of advantages AWG technology has to offer, it comes with a lot of potential to amplify the National Green Hydrogen Mission of the country. Providing pure white water, which is essential for performing the electrolysis, a crucial step in generating green hydrogen, it underscores the importance of AWG in the process. Therefore, while focusing on expediting the Green Hydrogen Mission of the country, it is mandatory to support it with AWG technology as well to ensure efficient production of green hydrogen.