The productive sharing of knowledge and ideas on potential uses for hydrogen during the half-day seminar was evident
“Considering abundance of coal availability in the country, it’s time to act on the diversified use of coal to ensure the energy security of the country and support the government’s decarbonising mission” ,stated Amrit Lal Meena, Secretary, Ministry of Coal, while delivering the keynote address on “Blue Hydrogen-Energy Security and Hydrogen Economy” organised by the Ministry here today.
The Secretary stated that the session needed to discuss cost competitiveness, worldwide experience, existing technology for converting coal to hydrogen, and the best course of action. He added that the action plan should be finished after careful consideration of the recommendations of the committee established by the Ministry of Coal to identify actionable points for the coal sector to assist the Green Hydrogen Mission. Meena also suggested setting up an advisory committee in the ministry with participation from all specialists to regularly discuss the issue and advance gasification.
M. Nagaraju, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Coal, discussed the policy steps taken by the Ministry to encourage coal gasification in order to meet the nation's energy needs in a sustainable manner in his welcoming speech.
Debasish Nanda, Director BD CIL and Chairman of the Committee, presented the committee report on the Green Hydrogen Mission, offering a comprehensive analysis of the current status, challenges, and future prospects of green hydrogen production in the country.
Prof. R. R. Sonde of IIT Delhi, Ranjit Rath, CMD of Oil India Limited, Prof. Arnab Dutta of IIT Bombay, Naveen Ahlawat, Head (CCUS) of JSPL, Varun Jindal, MD of Dev Energy, and Prasad Chaphekar Dy all gave presentations as well. Rajnath Ram, Advisor to the NITI Aayog and Secretary of MNRE, also shared his thoughts on the advancement of clean coal technologies.
Debasish Nanda served as the panel's chairman, and Peeyush Kumar, OSD, of the Ministry of Coal, served as its coordinator. During the presentations and discussions, a lot of fresh concepts for long-term strategy were raised. In order to contribute to a greener and more sustainable future, the session focused on addressing the potential of hydrogen in decarbonizing steel-making processes as well as exchanging opinions on creative methods and technologies to minimise carbon emissions in the steel sector.
Exploring hydrogen's possible uses for scaling Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) projects was another topic of debate.
Participants included representatives from the NITI Aayog, Department of Science and Technology, Department of Fertiliser, Ministry of Steel, Ministry of Heavy Industries, IICT Hyderabad, CSIR, as well as CIL, CMPDI, WCL, SECL, MCL, EIL, PDIL, BHEL, SCCL, NLCIL, SAIL, RIL, TATA STEEL, JSPL, Dev Energy, CGAI, CAPSEC, and PSU Watch. The necessity of sustainable practices was emphasised during a discussion on the development of Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) technology, which is essential for reducing carbon emissions.
The productive sharing of knowledge and ideas on potential uses for hydrogen during the half-day seminar was evident. In order to advance the country's transition to a hydrogen-based economy, the Ministry of Coal will keep facilitating debates about clean and sustainable energy alternatives.