Global pathways that India can follow for building a robust hydrogen ecosystem

Globally, countries are developing innovation clusters for boosting R&D activities. Innovation clusters are such geographic locations that have large & rapidly growing number of intellectual property facilitation (IPFs). These clusters provide a perfect ecosystem that allows well established industry players, start-ups, new entrants & technical colleges/universities/public research institutions (PRIs) to work cohesively on scaling technological advancement for hydrogen value chain segments. For example, in Europe Munich & Paris have such clusters that are led by mature industry players as well as by universities & PROs. Also, the players are encouraged to develop integrated value chain & cross value chain solution offerings.  In Paris, nearly 72% of the technology development on hydrogen is commanded by industry players , while 28% is supported by the universities & PRIs.

Universities and public research institutions across the globe generated nearly 14% of all hydrogen-related IPFs in the period 2011–2021*. They were particularly active in hydrogen production technologies with 18% of IPFs in that field, compared with 13.3% for storage, distribution and transformation technologies and only 7.1% for end-use applications. Some of the top institutions leading the R&D are from France & Korea. A snapshot of top institutes to have maximum number of patents across hydrogen value chain is indicated in Exhibit 02.

The EU bloc led patenting activities in most areas of hydrogen storage and distribution in the period 2011–2021*. The EU shows a particularly strong lead in established technologies supporting the storage and transport of pure hydrogen, with half of published IPFs in liquid storage, 38% for gaseous storage, 39% in refueling and 32% in networks and related equipment. The EU is also ahead in the field of low-emission hydrogen-based synthetic fuels and solid hydrogen storage by adsorption. The share of EU countries shrinks to 20% in the field of hydrides.