Hydrogen fuel for transport in India

India’s National Hydrogen Mission, launched in August 2021, seeks to scale up renewable electrolysis hydrogen production and use it in multiple sectors, including transportation. This is encouraging, as green hydrogen offers significant decarbonisation potential. Still, whether green hydrogen gain significant uptake in India’s road transport sector depend partly on consumer price, and this work estimates at-the-pump hydrogen costs in both 2030 and 2050. The four key cost components of the at-the-pump price for hydrogen fuel are production cost, transport cost, fuelling cost, and potential tariffs along the supply chain. The authors analysed two hydrogen production pathways that could have significant potential in India: green hydrogen produced via water electrolysis powered by solar electricity and “blue” hydrogen produced from natural gas combined with carbon capture and storage. The study assumed the hydrogen is delivered via pipeline. The cities of Ahmedabad, Mumbai, and New Delhi served as case studies.