On September 26, 2019, the President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind, launched first Indigenous High Temperature Fuel Cell System developed by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) under flagship programme named “New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative (NMITLI)”. This system was launched in partnership with Indian industries on the 78th foundation day of CSIR in New Delhi. A book titled “Bhatnagar Laureates 1958-2018” was also released during the function.
Key points
i. About the system: The 5.0 kW fuel cell system generates power using methanol/bio-methane in an ecofriendly way with heat and water as its bi-products. This amounts to an efficiency of more than 70%.
ii. Partnerships: This system was developed in Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model among three CSIR labs- CSIR National Chemical Laboratory( NCL)Pune, CSIR National Physical Laboratory (NPL) New Delhi and CSIR-Central ElectroChemical Research Institute (CECRI) Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu and two Indian industries-Thermax Limited, Pune and Reliance Industries Limited, Mumbai (both from Maharashtra).
iii. Fuel cell development: The development of the fuel cells are based on High-Temperature Proton Exchange Membrane (HTPEM) Technology which suits distributed stationary power applications such as for small offices, commercial units, data centers, etc. It is expected to replace Diesel Generating (DG) sets thus reducing India’s dependence on crude oil and would also enhance the use of green and alternate fuels.
About CSIR:
Established- 26 September 1942.
Director General(DG)-Shekhar C. Mande.