The Indian Railways lately introduced {that a} hydrogen-powered prepare, developed at the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai, has efficiently accomplished all assessments. This is a welcome signal of progress for the National Green Hydrogen Mission, which goals to provide at the very least 5 million metric tonnes of green hydrogen per 12 months by the 12 months 2030, a milestone on the solution to reaching nationwide internet zero emissions by 2070.
The prepare will quickly be carrying passengers between Jind and Sonipat on an 89-km route in Haryana. This mission will depend on hydrogen produced in Jind by a 1-MW polymer electrolyte membrane electrolyser that produces 430 kg of hydrogen every single day. The hydrogen will refill gasoline tanks on the prepare, the place gasoline cells will convert the hydrogen to electrical energy that runs the prepare’s electrical motors.
The precept is sort of easy. An electrolyser splits a water molecule into oxygen, protons, and electrons. In an electrochemical response at the unfavorable electrode (referred to as the anode), molecular oxygen is launched, and the electrons liberated are performed to the cathode by way of an exterior circuit. The polymer electrolyte membrane between the cathode and the anode is selective and solely permits protons to cross by means of to the cathode, the place they unite with the electrons to type hydrogen molecules. These rise as a fuel and are collected, compressed, and saved. The membrane, usually a fluoropolymer comparable to Nafion (associated to Teflon) is a superb insulator, and electrons won’t cross. The hydrogen and oxygen fashioned are clearly separated.
In the locomotive, as in a hydrogen-powered car, the above response is reversed in the hydrogen gasoline cell. Hydrogen is dropped at the anode, the place every molecule is catalytically cut up into two protons and two electrons. The protons cross by means of the membrane to the cathode, the place they meet oxygen in air and the electrons which are introduced by means of an exterior circuit from the anode. Water is fashioned. The electrons flowing by means of the exterior circuit represent the electrical present that powers the locomotive.
There is a key distinction between the chemical reactions in the gasoline cell and in the electrolyser. The chemistry between hydrogen and oxygen is spontaneous, a response ready to occur. Water, nevertheless, won’t cut up into the two parts by itself. Electrical present should be provided to offer the vitality for this electrochemical response.
To produce green hydrogen, the electrical energy for the electrolysers has to come back from renewable sources, comparable to photo voltaic panels or wind generators. New sources of renewable vitality can be wanted to fulfill the targets of the National Green Hydrogen Mission. Also below approach are thrilling makes an attempt to provide hydrogen in microbial electrolytic cells, the place electrochemically energetic microbes develop on anodes and oxidize natural matter — agricultural residues, even wastewater — and cross the electrons generated to the anode (Current Science, vol. 128, p. 133, 2025).
The catalysis steps require costly supplies comparable to platinum, iridium, and so forth. Ongoing analysis is geared toward changing these with cheap nickel, cobalt, and even iron. In early work in the direction of low-cost hydrogen technology, the group of C.N.R. Rao at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research designed nickel-nickel hydroxide-graphite electrodes with a water-splitting functionality akin to platinum electrodes (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., USA, vol. 114, 2017). Combining such developments with photo voltaic, and microbe-driven processes can produce a gasoline that’s each green and cheap.
The article was written in collaboration with Sushil Chandani sushilchandani@gmail.com
