Undertaken By: Council on Energy, Environment and Water, Recent Publication: 2021
Between 2005 to 2012, the demand for primary energy from the industrial sector increased more than two-fold, primarily driven by the economic growth of the sector. But India’s manufacturing sector continues to depend heavily on traditional, carbon-intensive fuel sources to meet its energy demands. The share of India’s industrial emissions in overall emissions is projected to increase from 28 per cent in 2020 to 35 per cent in 2040. This highlights the need for policy actions that look beyond the incremental process efficiency gains and aim for deep decarbonisation of industrial energy use.
Among the many options for decarbonising industrial heat, using hydrogen, provides significant advantages over other energy carriers because it is abundant, can be stored and transported at high energy density in liquid or gaseous forms and does not produce emissions at the point of use. This initiative evaluates the role of hydrogen in decarbonising the industrial fuel-mix and aims to identify the promising applications and policy measures for commercial-scale deployment, in the hard-to-abate sectors.