The brief Can White Hydrogen Accelerate India’s Energy Transition? Assessing Potential and Pathways has been authored by Rajakumaran, Hashvitha, Karan Kothadiya, and Deepak Yadav from the Council on Energy, Environment and Water.
This issue brief assesses the relevance of white hydrogen for India by examining its formation mechanisms, global developments, India’s geological potential, and the policy and institutional actions required to evaluate the resource. White hydrogen, also known as geological or natural hydrogen, has emerged as a possible complement to green hydrogen. It is molecular hydrogen generated by natural geological processes and extracted directly from subsurface formations, without electricity-intensive electrolysis or emission-intensive fossil-fuel conversion. Because these geological processes generate it continuously, it is treated as a renewable resource. The report finds that the priority in the initial phase is structured learning rather than deployment, and sets out a sequenced set of actions across policy, geological surveying, research and development, and international cooperation.
Key highlights
- White hydrogen is less resource-intensive than other hydrogen pathways in terms of land, energy, and water footprint, with much lower emission intensity than conventional hydrogen production pathways. Though unproven at scale, early evidence suggests that it could also be quite economical.
- Only one well is operational worldwide in Mali, and its scale is very small relative to India’s demand. However, public and private sector activity in this energy resource spans more than 15 countries.
- Some governments are enabling exploration through existing oil, gas, and mining law rather than new legislation.
- India has the potential to extract white hydrogen basis its geological markers, but lacks rigorous resource estimate studies or a coordinated national plan to develop white hydrogen as a new energy resource.
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