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Q99 (IAS/2023) Science & Technology › New Materials, Energy & Environment-linked Tech › Hydrogen energy technologies Official Key

Consider the following heavy industries : 1. Fertilizer plants 2. Oil refineries 3. Steel plants Green hydrogen is expected to play a significant role in decarbonizing how many of the above industries?

Result
Your answer: —  ·  Correct: C
Explanation

The correct answer is Option 3 (All three). Green hydrogen, produced via electrolysis using renewable energy, is a cornerstone for decarbonizing "hard-to-abate" sectors where electrification is technically challenging.

  • Fertilizer plants: Currently, these plants use "grey hydrogen" derived from natural gas to produce ammonia. Green hydrogen can directly replace this as a sustainable feedstock for nitrogenous fertilizers.
  • Oil refineries: Refineries utilize vast quantities of hydrogen for desulphurization and hydrocracking. Shifting to green hydrogen significantly reduces the carbon footprint of fuel processing.
  • Steel plants: In the steel industry, green hydrogen acts as a reducing agent in the Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) process, replacing coal and coke, thereby emitting water vapor instead of CO2.

Given that all three industries are carbon-intensive and rely on hydrogen either as a feedstock or a reducing agent, green hydrogen is essential for their transition to net-zero emissions. Therefore, it plays a significant role in all three sectors.

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Q. Consider the following heavy industries : 1. Fertilizer plants 2. Oil refineries 3. Steel plants Green hydrogen is expected to play a s…
At a glance
Origin: From standard books Fairness: High fairness Books / CA: 10/10 · 0/10
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This is a classic 'Government Mission + Application' question. Standard books (Singhania/Shankar) explicitly mention 'decarbonizing heavy industries' as the core goal of the National Hydrogen Mission. If you read the mission objectives, you solve this in 10 seconds.

How this question is built

This question can be broken into the following sub-statements. Tap a statement sentence to jump into its detailed analysis.

Statement 1
Is green hydrogen expected to play a significant role in decarbonizing fertilizer plants?
Origin: Direct from books Fairness: Straightforward Book-answerable
From standard books
Indian Economy, Nitin Singhania .(ed 2nd 2021-22) > Chapter 21: Sustainable Development and Climate Change > National Hydrogen Energy Mission (NHM) - announced in Union Budget 2021-22 > p. 605
Presence: 4/5
“This mission will draw a roadmap for using Green Hydrogen as an energy source. It will focus on generation of hydrogen from green power resources. This Green Hydrogen Mission is crucial to decarbonise heavy industries and clean electric mobility. Hydrogen from renewable power is technically viable and it is vital for regional and national energy security. Green hydrogen energy is essential for India to meet its Nationally Determined Contributions.”
Why this source?
  • Specifies a Green Hydrogen Mission aimed to generate hydrogen from renewable power and use Green Hydrogen as an energy source.
  • Explicitly states Green Hydrogen is crucial to decarbonise heavy industries, linking the technology to industrial emissions reduction.
Environment, Shankar IAS Acedemy .(ed 10th) > Chapter 22: Renewable Energy > Types Of Hydrogen Based On Extraction Methods > p. 298
Presence: 3/5
“zz,to,z, Types Of Hydrogen Based On Extraction Methods Depending on the nature of its extraction, hydrogen is categorized into three categories, namely, grey, blue and green. • Grey Hydrogen: it is produced via coal or lignite gasification {black orbrown}, or via a process called steam methane reformation (SMR) of natural gas or methane (grey). These tend to be mostly carbon-intensive processes. • Blue Hydrogen: It is produced via natural gas or coal gasification combined with carbon capture. storage (CCS) or carbon capture use (CCU) technologies to reduce carbon emissions. . Green Hydrogen: It is produced using electrolysis of water with electricity generated by renewable energy.”
Why this source?
  • Defines green hydrogen as hydrogen produced by electrolysis using renewable electricity, establishing it as a low‑carbon hydrogen source.
  • Provides the technical production route that can replace carbon‑intensive hydrogen used in industrial processes.
Environment, Shankar IAS Acedemy .(ed 10th) > Chapter 25: Agriculture > Fertilizers > p. 363
Presence: 3/5
“Fertilizers are industrially manufactured chemical containing plant nutrients. Nutrient content is higher in fertilizers than organic matter, and nutrients are released almost immediately.”
Why this source?
  • Identifies fertilizers as industrially manufactured chemical products, situating fertilizer plants within heavy industry.
  • Implies fertilizer production is an industrial process that could be a candidate for feedstock and energy decarbonization.
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