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Hydrogen and bioenergy

Fuel cells, ethanol blending and its feedstock, biogas, and aviation fuel made from biomass. Prelims has asked about the raw materials allowed under the National Policy on Biofuels and how green hydrogen is produced.

Foundation note: The colours of hydrogen

UPSC has asked

  • Prelims 2025: battery electric and fuel cell vehicles as alternative powertrains
  • Prelims 2023: uses of green hydrogen as fuel and in fuel cells
  • Prelims 2020: raw materials allowed under the National Policy on Biofuels

Showing 3 of 5 articles, those that changed from 1 to 30 June 2026.Show all

Hydrogen from nuclear heat: the copper chlorine cycle

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Prelims

The copper chlorine cycle is a thermochemical cycle that splits water using heat rather than electricity.

  • It is considered promising because it runs at relatively lower temperatures with higher thermodynamic efficiency.
  • Using nuclear process heat avoids the fossil fuel use and emissions of conventional hydrogen production and extends nuclear energy to non electric uses.
  • The Fast Breeder Test Reactor at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), Kalpakkam, is India's only operating fast reactor research facility.

What changed

  1. 26 Jun 2026BriefThe Department of Atomic Energy inaugurated at Kalpakkam on 26 June a technology demonstrator of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre's indigenous copper chlorine process using process heat from the Fast Breeder Test Reactor, described as the world's first such facility. PIB, 26 Jun 2026: DAE Inaugurates World's First Hydrogen Production Facility Based on Copper–Chlorine Thermochemical Cycle Using Nuclear Heat from Fast Breeder Test Reactor (opens in a new tab)

See also: The Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor

Biofuels

Compressed biogas

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Prelims and Mains

Compressed biogas is the gas of anaerobic digestion, in which bacteria break down wet organic matter without oxygen, stripped of its carbon dioxide and other impurities to leave almost pure methane.

  • It is chemically what natural gas is, so it can be blended into the compressed natural gas (CNG) sold to vehicles and into the gas piped to homes.
  • The feedstock is non-food material: crop residue, cattle dung, press mud from sugar mills and municipal organic waste.
  • Crop residue otherwise burnt in the field becomes a feedstock with a buyer, which is the link to stubble burning.

What changed

  1. 13 Jun 2026BriefA Harohalli plant turns Bengaluru wet waste into compressed biogas, and in April its gas entered the GAIL pipeline for the first time. Mains: Biogas needs a sustained price signal, as solar had, to attract investment; India's target of 5,000 plants compares with Germany's 9,000. The Indian Express, 13 Jun 2026: 50 tonnes in, 1 tonne out: Bengaluru startup turns city garbage into green energy amid LPG crisis (opens in a new tab) · The Hindu, 3 Jun 2026: Can kitchen waste replace LPG? This Indian startup thinks so (opens in a new tab)

Green hydrogen

National Green Hydrogen Mission

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Prelims and Mains

The National Green Hydrogen Mission is the money and the architecture India has put behind making hydrogen from water instead of fossil gas.

  • Green hydrogen matters because hydrogen is already an industrial raw material, made today from fossil gas.
  • The Mission, approved in 2023 and run by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), targets 5 million tonnes of green hydrogen a year by 2030.
  • Electrolysis passes electricity through water to separate hydrogen from oxygen, and is the route the Mission's money is built around.
  • SIGHT, Strategic Interventions for Green Hydrogen Transition, is the Mission's incentive arm, and pays separately for making electrolysers and for making hydrogen.
  • Hydrogen production is awarded in modes, and Mode-2B is the route under which refineries are allotted capacity.
  • Twelve pilot projects in road transport try both fuel cells and hydrogen internal combustion engines.

The Mission's value chain

  1. Renewable power

    Dedicated renewable capacity supplies the electricity

  2. Electrolysers

    Domestically made electrolysers split water, with incentives for manufacturing

  3. Green hydrogen

    Production capacity supported under the SIGHT incentives

    Certification: The Green Hydrogen Certification Scheme certifies the hydrogen as green across the chain, through its portal launched in June 2026

  4. Uses

    Refineries, fertiliser through green ammonia, steel and mobility

Certification sits across the whole chain, so that hydrogen sold as green can be shown to be green.Source: PIB, 17 June 2026

What changed

  1. 17 Jun 2026

    • The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy launched the Green Hydrogen Certification Portal of India on 17 June for certification and compliance under the Green Hydrogen Certification Scheme.
    • Standards for green ammonia and green methanol are finalised, and 6.7 lakh tonnes a year of green ammonia is contracted for fertiliser plants.

    PIB, 17 Jun 2026: Union Minister Shri Pralhad Joshi Launches Green Hydrogen Certification Portal to Enhance Transparency in Green Hydrogen Sector (opens in a new tab)

Background reading: PIB, 29 Jul 2026: Centre Launches 12 Pilot Projects Under National Green Hydrogen Mission for Deployment of 70 Hydrogen-Powered Vehicles Across 21 Routes (opens in a new tab)

UPSC has asked

  • Prelims 2026: how green hydrogen is produced and the Mission's 2030 target

Further reading: National Green Hydrogen Mission (MNRE)

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