Bengaluru: The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has developed a process to produce hydrogen fuel without combustion from biomass. The technology has been developed in collaboration with Indian Oil Corporation Limited’s Research and Development Centre.
The process involves biomass gasification and it produces hydrogen gas for use in fuel cell-based applications such as automobiles or energy generation. It is expected to be an affordable way to produce hydrogen.
The biomass gasification process involves heat, steam, and oxygen to convert biomass to hydrogen-rich syngas (synthetic gas) first and then separates hydrogen from the syngas.
This technology could lead to a cleaner energy option for India but will also be a step towards addressing the challenge of biomass waste, IISC said in a statement. It will also be a way to bring hydrogen to the mainstream energy mix.
Hydrogen gas will be produced at Indian Oil’s R&D Centre at Faridabad which would be used to power fuel cell buses.
Currently, hydrogen produced commercially is made from natural gas and the process is energy-intensive and also leads to greenhouse gas emissions.
