New Delhi: In a major innovation that could change the way India fuels its future, scientists at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, have developed a homegrown technology to produce 99 per cent pure green hydrogen from agricultural waste — a process that delivers 5 kilograms of hydrogen per hour using materials that are otherwise burnt or left to decompose in fields.
The development comes at a time when India consumes nearly 50 lakh tonnes of hydrogen annually, with the bulk of it produced using fossil fuels through steam methane reforming. The hydrogen market is expected to grow substantially as India moves to decarbonise sectors like steel, fertilisers and transportation. But replacing grey hydrogen with green hydrogen remains a technological and economic challenge — something IISc’s new platform now seeks to address.
Led by Professor S Dasappa, Chair of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Energy Research and Professor at the Centre for Sustainable Technologies, the IISc team has built a two-stage biomass-to-hydrogen reactor system. In the first stage, biomass is converted into syngas — a hydrogen-rich fuel mixture — using oxygen and steam in a specially designed reactor. In the second, the syngas is processed through a low-pressure gas separation unit, developed in-house, to yield pure hydrogen.
What makes the system striking is its ability to extract 100 grams of hydrogen from every kilogram of biomass, even though only 60 grams of hydrogen are naturally present. This is possible because steam — which also contains hydrogen — participates in chemical reactions that enhance the yield.
“This indigenous technology is a step towards achieving the goal of Atmanirbhar Bharat of the Honourable Prime Minister,” said Prof Dasappa. “It also dovetails nicely with the National Hydrogen Energy Roadmap.”
The process is not only renewable but also carbon-negative. The carbon content in the biomass is captured either as solid carbon, which serves as a carbon sink, or as carbon dioxide, which can be reused for producing value-added products like methanol or ethanol. Unlike conventional hydrogen production, this system does not emit harmful gases and instead reduces atmospheric carbon.
Union Minister of New and Renewable Energy, Pralhad Joshi, visited IISc on July 18 and observed the system in action. He said, “This system you have developed here is a prime example of what it means to transform fundamental science into effective technology.”
The project has received funding and technical support from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Department of Science and Technology, and Indian Oil Corporation Limited. The technology is already being scaled up to produce 0.25 tonnes of hydrogen per day, in partnership with IOC, to support hydrogen-powered fuel cell buses.
During his visit, Minister Joshi also laid out four national challenges to the scientific community: improve hydrogen storage technology, reduce the cost of electrolysis systems, cut down prices of hydrogen-powered vehicles and refuelling infrastructure, and bring the cost of green hydrogen down from ₹300–400 per kg to ₹100 — in line with India’s National Green Hydrogen Mission, which has a budget of ₹19,744 crore and aims to produce 5 million metric tonnes of green hydrogen annually by 2030.
Prof Dasappa believes the hydrogen generation platform can be expanded for other fuels too. “The same platform can be used for methanol and ethanol production,” he said. The IISc team sees potential for the technology in the steel industry, green fertilisers, and sectors currently reliant on fossil-fuel-based hydrogen.
As India eyes a leadership position in the green hydrogen economy, the IISc’s innovation may offer a path to scale — using a fuel that literally grows in the country’s own backyard.
