Hydrogen Refueling Infrastructure within India

Fuel Supply & Refueling Infrastructure

There are four developed approaches to hydrogen refueling. Industry consultation during the “VoC” suggests that either decentralized electrolysis (the process of using electricity to split water to produce hydrogen), or hydrogen gas offtake from centralized facility (producing hydrogen for other applications by one of a variety of methods, as discussed in previous sections of the report.

Hydrogen refueling infrastructure within India is very nascent with only few live examples of the technology. Furthermore, these examples are mainly within PPP mode or private mode and not readily available for public use.

In most instances, the assessment of potential hydrogen trials and pilots has included the costs required to procure and implement hydrogen refueling technology. The assessment, however, leaves the technology used as deliberately generic – it does not specify whether the refueling is centralized, decentralized or the delivery method of the hydrogen fuel, where applicable. Our research suggests that the refueling technology choice is mostly agnostic to the use case and more dependent on the geographical and supply chain constraints of each specific project.

For the most part, however, these considerations are downstream of this study and therefore not considered in detail when determining the relative strengths and weaknesses of each hypothetical project.

The market for hydrogen transport technology

The opportunity for implementing hydrogen as a transport technology spans across multiple modes. Each application has different characteristics, and these affect the opportunities for implementing trials, demonstrations and pilots. The methodology had a four-point central framework as defined below:

Defining successful piloting

A pilot or trial of an emerging technology can have several factors which determine whether it is a success within the market. Technology pilots are undertaken for several reasons. For example, a new technology may be piloted to prove the operational performance and test the user experience. Alternatively, the pilot may aim to create end user awareness and encourage broad adoption of a new technology. Key themes that are considered central to the success of the hydrogen for transport in India.