New Delhi: Coal secretary Amrit Lal Meena on Friday called up on the stakeholders to diversify use of coal to ensure energy security of the country to support the Central government’s decarbonising mission.
Meena said this while delivering the key note address at a seminar organised on “Blue Hydrogen-Energy Security and Hydrogen Economy” by the coal ministry. The secretary said that the session must deliberate on the technologies available for coal to hydrogen, cost competitiveness, global experience and the way forward strategy.
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Elaborating further, Meena said that the recommendations of the committee constituted by the coal ministry to identify actionable points for coal sector to support green hydrogen mission should be deliberated and action plan finalised. He also advised to constitute an advisory committee in the ministry with all experts to deliberate on the subject in a regular manner to promote gasification.
In his welcome address, M Nagaraju, additional secretary, coal, outlined the policy initiatives taken by the ministry to promote coal gasification to meet the energy demands of the country in a sustainable way.
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Debasish Nanda, director, business development, Coal India Limited (CIL) and chairman of the committee presented the committee report on the green hydrogen mission offering comprehensive analysis of the current status, challenges and future prospects of green hydrogen production in the country.
Presentations were also made by R R Sonde of IIT Delhi, Ranjit Rath, chairman and managing director, Oil India Limited, Arnab Dutta of IIT Bombay, Naveen Ahlawat, head, Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS), JSPL, Varun Jindal, managing director, Dev Energy, and Shri Prasad Chaphekar, deputy secretary, ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE), Rajnath Ram, adviser, NITI Aayog, also expressed his views on development of clean coal technologies.
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Panel discussion was also chaired by Debasish Nanda and coordinated by Peeyush Kumar, OSD, ministry of coal. During the presentations and discussions, many new ideas came up for way ahead strategy. The session was dedicated to discussing the potential of hydrogen in decarbonizing steel making processes and shared views on innovative approaches and technologies to reduce carbon emissions in the steel industry contributing to a greener and more sustainable future. The discussion was also on exploring the potential applications of hydrogen in scaling direct reduced iron (DRI) projects.
The programme was attended by officials of NITI Aayog, department of science and technology, department of fertiliser, ministry of steel, ministry of heavy industries, IICT Hyderabad, CSIR besides officials from CIL, CMPDI, WCL, SECL, MCL, EIL, PDIL, BHEL, SCCL, NLCIL, SAIL, Reliance Industries Limited, Tata Steel, Jindal Steel & Power Limited, Dev Energy, CGAI, CAPSEC and PSU watch. Discussion pertaining to development of Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) technology, which plays a crucial role in mitigating carbon emissions also held and emphasized the importance of sustainable practices.
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The half-day session witnessed fruitful exchanges of ideas and knowledge on future uses of hydrogen. The ministry of coal remains committed to promoting clean and sustainable energy solutions and will continue to facilitate such discussions to drive the nation’s progress toward a hydrogen-based economy, said a ministry official.
