Conference Report – 6th International conference on Hydrogen and Fuel Cells during 10th – 12th December 2017 at Hotel Hyatt Pune, India

Hydrogen Association of India continued its journey to promote hydrogen as a future energy carrier by organizing the 6th International conference on Hydrogen and Fuel Cells under the aegis of International Association of Hydrogen Energy (IAHE), USA during 10th – 12th December 2016 at Hotel Hyatt , Kalyani Nagar in the city of Pune, India.

The conference was attended by over 160 delegates from across the globe. The conference was supported by Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India, Automotive companies, Energy companies like IndianOil Corporation Ltd. and Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. and Fuel Cell developers. In addition, IAHE also supported the event as done during past events.

In his welcome address, Dr. R K Malhotra, President HAI highlighted the recent interests generated by emerging fuel cell technologies in the Indian market. He stressed upon the need of collaborations & partnerships among different stakeholders for overcoming different challenges faced by the hydrogen community. Issue of storage, distribution of hydrogen remains a concern as price of storage and distribution is almost equal to price of production for hydrogen.

In his inaugural address, Dr. Anil Kakodkar, former Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission of India, said that the hydrogen economy after so many years is still far away. But the time will come with climate and sustainability issues. He advised that we should talk about short term opportunities with hydrogen as fuel and take baby steps.  Hydrogen addition in Biomass to produce fuel can allow use of existing assets and vehicles in addition to promoting hydrogen usage. Steam electrolysis of water can be implemented in the existing power plants rather than closing down the power plants. He also highlighted that hydrogen is the best solution for taking care of the Intermittency of renewable energy like solar and wind.

Fig : Inaugural Session at 6th IHFC Fig: CEO Panel at 6th IHFC

Mr. N.K. Verma, CMD of ONGC Videsh Ltd. talked about various options for hydrogen storage and highlighted the use of Nano porous material for store hydrogen. He also pointed out the importance of work going on in photosynthesis to produce synthetic fuel to mix carbon dioxide and hydrogen.

This year the HAI T. N. VEZIROGLU AWARD  for HY-Contest held among various Institutions  and it was won by team from Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar. The team members were Mentor Prof. Dhiraj Mahajan, Ms. Tushita Rohilla, Mr. Sunil Sharma and Mr. Vishal Kumar. The topic of their report was “ An Innovative Application of Fuel Cell for Rural India from concept to Design”.

CEO’s panel on Inaugural day included Dr. S S V Ramakumar, Director (R&D) Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), Dr. Rashmi Urdhwareshe, Director Automotive Research Association of India, Mr. Ravi Pandit, Chairman & Group CEO, KPIT Technologies Limited, Mr. Ross Bailey, CEO, Greenlight Innovation (Canada) and Dr. Satoshi Nishino, Director, Automotive International Trade Policy, METI (Japan). The topic of discussions was “Beyond Conventional- Role of Hydrogen and Fuel Cells”

Dr . Ramakumar highlighted the synergy of Oil companies as a potential fuel (hydrogen) supplier for emerging fuel cell applications. He further introduced the audience to the key initiatives and future plans of IndianOil (R&D) in the field of hydrogen energy including Polymer Electrolyte Membrane and Solid Oxide fuel cells. While expressing the need to promote research & development efforts for producing low cost hydrogen, he indicated that hydrogen & fuel cell technologies must qualify the parameters of affordability, scalability and safety to attract the cost sensitive Indian consumer

Fig: HAI T.N. Veziroglu Award to Team from IIT Ropar

With panel discussions including the CEO panel, the conference received an overwhelming response from the audience who actively interacted in a 2 way deliberations. 25 Panelists discussed for one full day on various facets of Hydrogen energy including Production / Availability, Storage, Stationary/ Mobile applications, Hydrogen Transportation and Regulatory framework etc. There were speakers who shared the series of research oriented and application based concepts. . A special session was introduced this year for presentations on company / country perspectives. The conference provided an ideal platform for the industry, academicians, researchers and policy makers to get apprised with the latest developments taking place in this arena. During the course of the conference, technologies related to hydrogen production, storage, handling, transportation & safety and technological advances in the field of fuel cells development were discussed and deliberated at length.

In addition to the big Energy and Automotive companies the event also saw the wide representation from emerging small and medium scale Indian industry active in various facets of hydrogen supply chain. Industry representation was also evident at various exhibition stalls while students from leading engineering institutes contributed significantly through the poster sessions. Seven exhibitors also showcased their products

From : Alok Sharma, Organizing Secretary, 6th International Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Conference (IHFC) and Treasurer Hydrogen Association of India sharma@indianoil.in