India innovates technology that generates hydrogen directly from agricultural residue
World’s first technology that generates hydrogen directly from agricultural residue for use in fuel cell-powered vehicles.
This is a collaborative efforts of Pune based Sentient Labs and Agharkar Research Institute to contribute to India’s National Hydrogen Mission.
Sentient labs and Agharkar Research Institute. Collaborate for this breakthrough
* Will be a key contributor to India’s National Hydrogen Mission.
* Technology to equip farmers in India to monetize over 200 million tons of unutilized agricultural residue.
* Positive impact to the environment by modelling on circular economy.
Hydrogen fuel cell vehicle technology is estimated to be the next big step in the direction of sustainable mobility as it provides a large operating range, is suitable for commercial vehicles, and leaves a minimal environmental footprint.
The need of the hour in crude oil-importing nations is to rapidly move towards self-reliant energy sources and sustainable mobility.
The hydrogen generated from this technology will be utilized to power fuel cell vehicles that emit only water, thus making the entire cycle pollution-free.
This hydrogen generation technology uses agricultural residue rich in cellulose and hemicellulose content – in likes of paddy, wheat, or maize residue.
The process uses microbial culture for the direct generation of hydrogen from agricultural residues. It further generates methane, which is utilized for producing additional hydrogen by steam methane reformation.
This process can avoid the burning of bio-mass generated in large measure in the Indian countryside and generate organic manure and CO2, which finds applications in various industries.
A pertinent sustainability aspect of the innovation is that it models on the circular economy. In India, approximately 200 million tons of unutilized agricultural residue is generated.
This agricultural residue, which is burnt in most of the cases, can be fed into this process to generate hydrogen.
