timesofindia.indiatimes.com
1 September 2009
CHENNAI: The residents of Tamil Nadu who constantly fret over the harsh summer that lasts nearly throughout the year better think again. Energy experts say it is actually a blessing in disguise. Especially T Nejat Veziroglu, president of the international association for hydrogen energy. He feels the state's immense solar energy potential is ideal for harnessing hydrogen energy.
Nejat Veziroglu was in Chennai on Monday to address students of RMK engineering college on the hydrogen energy system the ultimate solution, according to him, to energy and environmental problems. He told TOI about the vast potential of hydrogen energy and about why India should adopt it. "Hydrogen is considered an ideal energy carrier in the foreseeable future. It can be produced from water using a variety of energy sources, such as solar, nuclear and fossils, and it can be converted into useful energy forms efficiently and without detrimental environmental effects," he said.
According to him, hydrogen can be used in any application in which fossil fuels are used. "It can be used as a fuel in furnaces, internal combustion engines, turbines and jet engines, even more efficiently than fossil fuels, that is, coal, petroleum and natural gas. Automobiles, trains, ships, submarines, planes and rockets can run on hydrogen." The good news for a power-starved country like India is that hydrogen can be converted directly to electricity. To generate 1 kWh of electrical energy using a fuel-cell, just 0.05 kg of hydrogen need be supplied.
"India has the knowhow to create hydrogen energy as many universities, including IITs, Benares Hindu University and RMK engineering college, are conducting research on this. The country's energy infrastructure must be based on hydrogen instead of petroleum," said Veziroglu. He said his organisation would be more than happy to help universities interested in research on hydrogen energy. "India also suffers from various environmental problems, mainly pollution. Using hydrogen energy can help reduce this," he said.
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