Government’s hydrogen mission will ride on CNG network: Dharmendra Pradhan

NEW DELHI: The government intends to leverage its CNG (compressed natural gas) network to quickly build an ecosystem for using hydrogen as a new-age fuel as part of efforts to reduce dependence on oil and bring down the economy’s carbon footprint.
“Efforts are underway to leverage the vast CNG pipeline infrastructure to reduce the transportation cost of hydrogen,” oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan told a global round table on ‘Hydrogen Economy: New Delhi Dialogue-2021’ here on Thursday.
CNG networks are being rolled out in 400 districts, which could provide the backbone for transporting hydrogen. “Fifty buses in Delhi are plying on hydrogen-blended CNG (H-CNG) on a pilot basis. We plan to scale it up in the coming months across the major cities of India,” Pradhan said indicating the government’s intent.