By Amitabh Kant & Kowtham Raj VS
A dream of a hydrogen economy is neither new nor novel. The hydrogen industry and the energy industry brushed shoulders at multiple points throughout their history. The first demonstrations of water electrolysis to produce carbon-free hydrogen fuel and fuel cells to convert hydrogen to electricity were engineered in the 1800s. Hydrogen was used to fuel the first internal combustion engines. Hydrogen as a rocket fuel took us to the Moon in the 1960s. Despite the early promise, the discovery of cheap oil meant that the hydrogen-based energy economy has largely eluded us—until now.
Unable to make its mark in the energy industry, hydrogen instead has held its own becoming a valuable chemical in itself.
Supplying hydrogen as an industrial…