Govt mulling of using hydrogen, ammonia for power generation!

In a major development in the country‍‍`s power sector, the government is experimenting with how to generate electricity using hydrogen and ammonia.  

“The Power Division has been working on how to use hydrogen and ammonia as energy alongside the conventional sources of energy”, said State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid.

He was addressing a workshop on “Techno-Economic Study of Electricity Generation Technologies for Bangladesh: Challenges and Opportunities” at Bidyut Bhaban in Dhaka on Monday.

He informed the workshop that nuclear power will come to the national grid soon. “Some 12,047 MW of electricity is now in different stages of generation”, he added.

Bloomberg NEF, a US technology and financial strategic research organization, presented research on various sources of power generation in Bangladesh and its cost in this workshop.

He said the availability of non-agricultural land is one of the major problems in the promotion of renewable energy in Bangladesh.

“We are also moving forward with onshore and offshore wind power. One of our main goals is to provide uninterrupted power at affordable cost. Special emphasis is now being laid on modernisation of transmission and distribution systems and also grid synchronization”, he added.

The head of Bloomberg‍‍`s Asia Pacific Region Dr. Ali Izadi, South Asia Market Leader Isshu Kikuma and Senior Associate Tarun Blakrishnan presented the research paper on behalf of Bloomberg at the workshop.

They emphasised on supporting renewable energy at the utility scale, increasing the use of rooftop and floating solar, and training for clean technology jobs.

They pointed out that  carbon emissions can be reduced by mixing coal with ammonia or natural gas with hydrogen, but the cost will be high, while the use of batteries with solar or batteries with wind is much more cost-effective.

The event conducted by Nirod Chandra Mandal, Joint Secretary of Power Department, was also addressed among others by Member of Parliament Nahim Razzak, Senior Secretary of Power Department Md. Habibur Rahman, Srade Chairman Munira Sultana, BPDB Chairman Md. Mahbubur Rahman, BREB Chairman Ajay Kumar Chakraborty, Power Cell Director General Mohammad Hossain, Professor of BUET Ijaz Ahmed, Professor of Dhaka University Badrul Imam, Director of Energy Research Center Shahriar Ahmed Chowdhury and heads of departments.