Ranchi: Researchers at Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines) Dhanbad have developed a new electrode material that could sharply cut the cost of producing green hydrogen, a key fuel in India’s clean energy plans, News Arena India reported.
The research team said the material can reduce hydrogen production costs by 400 to 500 times compared with current methods. The breakthrough supports the goals of the National Green Hydrogen Mission, which aims to produce five million tonnes of green hydrogen annually by 2030.
Green hydrogen is produced by splitting water using renewable energy and is seen as important for reducing emissions in industries such as steel, fertilisers, oil refining and chemicals.
The study was led by S K Riyajuddin from the institute’s Department of Physics, along with research scholars Priyadarshani Tamang and Rumana Sultana Parvin. The researchers focused on addressing one of the biggest challenges in green hydrogen production—the high cost of catalyst materials.
Currently, hydrogen production depends largely on expensive metals such as platinum and ruthenium, making the process costly and difficult to scale up. To address this, the team developed a new catalyst by combining molybdenum disulfide and vanadium sulphide with reduced graphene oxide.
The researchers said the new material uses widely available elements such as molybdenum, vanadium, sulphur and carbon, making it more affordable and suitable for large-scale use. Tests showed that the catalyst reduces the energy required for water splitting, allowing hydrogen to be produced more efficiently.
As part of the study, the team also demonstrated hydrogen production using a standard silicon solar cell linked to a water-splitting system, showing that solar energy can directly power the process.
The findings were published in the international journal Small, published by Wiley, and are expected to support India’s transition to cleaner energy sources.
