CSIR-Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology (CSIR-IMMT), Bhubaneswar, celebrated the National Technology Day by organising a webinar on 11 May 2021.

The chief guest Padmashri Prof. Ganapati D. Yadav (Emeritus Professor of Eminence, J.C. Bose National Fellow (GOI), delivered a very informative lecture on "What best hydrogen economy can do for the World in search of net Zero ?". 

Prof. Suddhasatwa Basu, Director, CSIR-IMMT, gave a brief overview of the importance of Science and Technology along with the ongoing S&T activities of the institute. The Programme was coordinated by Dr Manas K. Dalai, Senior Scientist, CSIR-IMMT. The abstract of the National Technology Day 2021 lecture is given below:

What best hydrogen economy can do for the world in search of net-zero?

Ganapati D. Yadav, FNA, FTWAS, FASc, FNASc, FNAE, FRSC, FIChemE

Emeritus Professor of Eminence

J.C. Bose National Fellow (GOI)

Former Vice-Chancellor and R.T. Mody Distinguished Professor &

Tata Chemicals Darbari Seth Distinguished Professor of Leadership & Innovation

Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai

There was a climate change summit in April 2021 where nations of the World talked about net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Energy and the environment are hot topics in the realm of climate change. The Paris Agreement 2015 has set an ambitious goal for restricting the temperature rise to within 1.5-2°C during this century. The over-use of oil products has done great damage to the environment.

The crude oil-based economy for the manufacture of fuels, chemicals and materials will not have a sustainable future and also to mitigate the CO₂ emissions need innovative approach and policies. Faced with the twin challenges of sustaining socioeconomic development and shrinking the environmental footprint of chemicals and fuels manufacturing, a major emphasis is on either converting biomass into low-value, high-volume biofuels or refining it into a wide spectrum of products. 

Using carbon for fuel is a flawed approach and unlikely to achieve any nation’s socioeconomic or environmental targets. Biomass is chemically and geographically incompatible with the existing refining and pipeline infrastructure, and biorefining and biofuels production in their current forms will not achieve economies of scale in most nations. Synergistic use of crude oil, biomass, and shale gas to produce fuels, value-added chemicals, and commodity chemicals, respectively can continue for some time.

However, carbon should not be used as a source of fuel or energy but be valorized to other products. In controlling CO₂ emissions, hydrogen will play a critical role. Hydrogen is best suited for converting waste biomass and carbon dioxide emanated from different sources, whether fossil or biomass into fuels and chemicals as well as it will also lead, on its own as an energy source, to the carbon negative scenario in conjunction with other renewable non-carbon sources. This new paradigm for the production of fuels and chemicals not only offers the greatest monetization potential for biomass and shale gas, but could also scale down output and improve the atom and energy economies of oil refineries.