Green hydrogen, produced by electrolyzing water using renewable energy, has long been heralded as a clean energy panacea. Today, the global energy sector is transitioning from pilot projects to real-world applications, particularly in hard-to-abate sectors like heavy transport, aviation, and industry. As a result, green hydrogen has moved from a niche concept to a centrepiece of global decarbonization strategies.
Unlike hydrogen produced from fossil fuels, green hydrogen involves splitting water using renewable electricity, yielding a zero-carbon fuel. It offers a way to store renewable power and to fuel heavy processes without emissions—an essential solution for sectors that are hard to electrify directly. In recent years, excitement around green hydrogen has surged, but the true test is turning this hype into real-world impact. Today, we see the first signs of that transition as governments and companies worldwide pour investments into pilot projects to prove that green hydrogen can work at scale.
Heavy-Duty Transport: Hydrogen Hits the Road
A major proving ground for green hydrogen is heavy-duty transport, particularly in trucking and buses. While batteries power many passenger cars, batteries alone often struggle to provide sufficient range and fast refuelling for fully loaded trucks and long-range buses. Hydrogen fuel cells offer a promising alternative: they generate electricity onboard from hydrogen gas, emitting only water. This enables trucks and buses to run on electric motors while refilling in minutes with hydrogen, making fuel-cell vehicles attractive for continuous, long-distance operations.
Early deployments of hydrogen vehicles are already underway. In Europe, several manufacturers have put prototype fuel-cell trucks into real freight service. Logistics companies are testing these 40-ton trucks on long-haul routes, with initial results showing they can haul heavy loads for hundreds of kilometres per fill-up. Likewise, in Asia and North America, pilot fleets of hydrogen trucks are moving goods between ports and warehouses, gathering data on performance and reliability.
For instance, in Switzerland, a fleet of 48 Hyundai XCIENT fuel-cell trucks had collectively logged over 10 million kilometres by mid-2024. These trucks run exclusively on green hydrogen produced via hydropower electrolysis, creating a zero-carbon supply chain. This commercial fleet has demonstrated that fuel-cell trucks can match diesel performance for range and payload while avoiding an estimated 6,300 tons of CO₂ emissions over 10 million kilometres of service.
Similar pilot programmes are underway elsewhere. In California, Toyota and Kenworth successfully ran 10 Class-8 fuel-cell trucks in port drayage service, each with a range of 300+ miles and 15-minute refuelling. These projects prove that hydrogen trucks can handle heavy loads and multiple shifts. However, scaling up will hinge on fuelling infrastructure and economics.
Public transit is also getting a hydrogen boost. Cities like London and Beijing have integrated hydrogen buses into their fleets, benefiting from quiet, zero-emission rides. These buses can operate all day on one tank of hydrogen and refuel quickly, avoiding the downtime required for charging battery buses. Hydrogen is even expanding into rail transport: hydrogen-powered trains have begun to replace diesel on certain regional lines in Europe, achieving clean propulsion without the need for overhead electric wires.
In Europe, as of early 2023, about 370 fuel-cell buses were in operation, a number expected to surpass 1,200 by 2025. Notably, Regionalverkehr Köln (RVK) in Germany has become Europe’s largest hydrogen bus operator, running over one hundred fuel-cell buses by late 2024 and targeting 160 by 2025, supported by strong public funding.
Cities like Aberdeen, Scotland, launched hydrogen bus fleets—15 double-deckers in 2020, with 10 more added in 2022—fuelled by locally produced green hydrogen as part of a “Hydrogen Hub” economy. Technically, the buses performed well, offering acceptable range and smooth operation in daily service. However, early projects also highlighted challenges: in Aberdeen, high hydrogen fuel costs and supply bottlenecks forced the hydrogen fleet to be temporarily idled in 2024 due to fuel shortages. Similarly, Brussels transit agency STIB trialed a hydrogen bus from 2021–2023 but cancelled plans for more, citing the difficulty of securing affordable green hydrogen in quantity.
Outside Europe, China has deployed hundreds of fuel-cell buses, often using by-product hydrogen, while several US transit agencies are piloting hydrogen buses with at least 33% renewable hydrogen as required in California. Overall, heavy-duty transport is proving to be a frontier sector for green hydrogen—one where the technology works and zero-emission benefits are clear, but infrastructure and cost competitiveness remain critical hurdles.
Some prominent examples of green hydrogen being deployed in heavy-duty transport include:
- Europe: Daimler Truck has developed liquid hydrogen prototypes, aiming to meet the EU’s CO₂ reduction targets
- India: Chhattisgarh introduced India’s first hydrogen-powered fuel cell truck at the Gare Pelma III coal block, developed by Adani Enterprises
- In Odisha, the state government plans to operate hydrogen-powered buses in Bhubaneswar as part of its sustainable public transportation initiative. A pilot project involving three hydrogen buses will soon begin operating on various city routes
Aviation: Sustainable Skies with Hydrogen
Aviation is one of the toughest sectors to decarbonize, and hydrogen is being explored as a key part of the solution. Two approaches are under development: using hydrogen directly as a fuel for flight and using hydrogen to create sustainable aviation fuels (SAF).
Both approaches are in initial stages but have seen promising progress. Major aircraft manufacturers and startups are testing hydrogen in the air. Airbus has announced plans for a hydrogen-powered commercial plane by the mid-2030s and has begun ground-testing jet engines running on hydrogen. At a smaller scale, experimental hydrogen-electric aircraft have already taken flight—retrofitted propeller planes equipped with hydrogen fuel cells have completed short demonstration flights, proving the concept of zero-emission air travel on a limited scale.
Pilot facilities in Europe are also producing synthetic jet fuel from green hydrogen, enabling existing aircraft to fly with significantly lower carbon footprints. A notable milestone was achieved in Germany in late 2021 when the world’s first industrial pilot plant for power-to-liquid kerosene was launched. Operated by the climate NGO Atmosfair, the Emsland facility produces synthetic jet fuel by combining green hydrogen (from on-site wind-powered electrolysis) with captured CO₂. By early 2022, the plant was producing about eight barrels of carbon-neutral “e-kerosene” per day from water, renewable electricity, and captured CO₂. This synthetic fuel, refined into Jet-A1, has been delivered to Hamburg Airport, with Lufthansa and Kuehne+Nagel committing to purchase 25,000 liters per year for five years. This marks the first real-world use of green hydrogen in aviation fuel, powering a limited number of commercial flights (initially as a small blend) with drop-in fuel that is net-zero emissions.
Despite these advances, significant hurdles remain before hydrogen becomes routine in aviation. Storing enough hydrogen onboard a plane requires either high-pressure tanks or cryogenic liquid hydrogen, necessitating new aircraft designs and airport infrastructure. For this reason, experts believe hydrogen will first impact shorter flights and regional aircraft, as well as blended fuels for larger jets. Nonetheless, the fact that hydrogen-fueled flights and engine tests are happening today shows that the aviation industry is preparing for a future of climate-friendly flying.
Some examples of green hydrogen use in aviation include:
- United States: Infinium has commenced construction of Project Roadrunner near Pecos, Texas, one of the world’s largest eFuels production facilities, to produce SAF and other eFuels using waste CO₂ and renewable energy.
- United Kingdom: ZeroAvia is developing hydrogen-electric powertrains for regional aircraft, and in 2023 flew a Dornier 228 testbed for 10 minutes with one turboprop replaced by a prototype hydrogen-electric powertrain.
Industries: Greening Steel and Ammonia Production
Some of the most promising real-world uses for green hydrogen are in heavy industry, particularly in steelmaking and ammonia production. These sectors traditionally rely on fossil fuels and generate significant carbon emissions, making them prime targets for hydrogen-based decarbonization.
In steel production, green hydrogen can replace coal in the iron smelting process. Instead of using coke to strip oxygen from iron ore (which releases CO₂), hydrogen can achieve the same reduction and emit only water vapor. This method has already been demonstrated: a few steel plants in Europe have produced the world’s first batches of “green steel” using hydrogen, and more are being built to operate at commercial scale in the coming years. If adopted widely, hydrogen-based steelmaking could eliminate most of the industry’s carbon footprint.
Ammonia, used mainly for fertilizers, is another industrial product poised for a green makeover. Conventional ammonia plants use hydrogen derived from natural gas, emitting CO₂. Switching to green hydrogen as the feedstock enables the same chemical process to produce green ammonia with near-zero emissions. Pilot projects in Europe and Australia have already begun producing green ammonia in limited quantities, and several countries are planning large green ammonia facilities that leverage cheap renewable energy to make clean fertilizer and even export ammonia as a form of shipped green energy.
A breakthrough in Green Steel came in Sweden with the HYBRIT project (a joint venture of SSAB, Vattenfall, and LKAB), which in 2021 produced the world’s first batch of fossil-free steel using 100% hydrogen in the iron reduction step. This pilot-scale output was small—SSAB rolled the first steel plates from hydrogen-reduced sponge iron at its Oxelösund plant—but it proved the concept at industrial conditions. Volvo Group quickly incorporated that green steel into a prototype mining truck, effectively creating the first vehicle made of hydrogen-derived steel. By 2022, SSAB had delivered trial amounts of this steel to partners like Volvo, ahead of HYBRIT’s plan to begin full commercial production in 2026.
Other steelmakers are following suit. In Germany, ArcelorMittal ran a successful trial replacing natural gas with green hydrogen in a direct reduction iron (DRI) plant and is now building a 100,000 ton/year demonstration DRI facility in Hamburg to run on hydrogen. Salzgitter AG’s SALCOS project and Tata Steel in the Netherlands have similar hydrogen-based steel plans for the late 2020s. These early moves demonstrate that high-quality steel can be made without fossil fuels, but scaling up remains formidable. The challenges include securing massive hydrogen supplies—a single large steel mill might require on the order of 100,000 Nm³ of H₂ per hour—and the prohibitive cost of green hydrogen compared to cheap coal. Until carbon pricing or green steel premiums bridge the economic gap, most operations remain in pilot phase.
Nonetheless, momentum is growing. Green steel has eager buyers—automakers and construction firms—who want to decarbonize their supply chains. The first real-world green steel deliveries show that with the right investments, hydrogen can indeed revolutionize this hard-to-abate industry.
In late 2023, the world’s first certified green ammonia shipment was dispatched by Fertiglobe (an ADNOC-OCI joint venture) from the UAE/Egypt to India. This ammonia was produced using renewable-powered electrolysis and was delivered to a chemical plant to make “green” soda ash for Unilever’s detergents. While the shipment was relatively small (enough ammonia for around 6,000 tons of low-carbon washing powder), it marked a milestone in international green hydrogen trade, demonstrating that green ammonia can be produced, certified, and transported across continents as a decarbonized chemical feedstock.
In Europe, fertilizer giant Yara has begun operating a 24 MW electrolyzer at its Herøya plant in Norway—currently the largest green hydrogen plant in Europe—to feed its ammonia synthesis process. The system, inaugurated in 2023, will produce about 20,500 tons of green ammonia annually, which Yara is blending into its fertilizer products under a new “Climate Choice” green brand. This will cut an estimated 41,000 tons of CO₂ emissions per year by reducing the plant’s reliance on fossil hydrogen.
The appeal of green ammonia extends beyond fertilizers. It is also seen as a potential zero-carbon fuel for power generation and maritime shipping (since ammonia can be burned in engines or used in fuel cells). For instance, in 2023, a demonstration tugboat ran on ammonia fuel in New York, and Japan is co-firing ammonia in coal power plants to trial its use as a fuel.
The hurdles for green ammonia mirror those of green hydrogen at scale: high production costs, the need for vast renewable energy inputs, and safety considerations (ammonia is toxic and requires careful storage). Yet, the first real deployments indicate that these challenges are surmountable. As carbon costs rise and global shipping seeks cleaner fuels, green ammonia could find dual roles as both a critical fertilizer input and an energy-dense hydrogen carrier for international transport of green energy.
Even oil refineries and chemical factories are beginning to replace a portion of their fossil-derived hydrogen with green hydrogen. Some prominent examples of green hydrogen use in industrial applications include:
- Juno Joule Green Energy Pvt Ltd is developing a green hydrogen and ammonia production facility near Mulapeta port in Andhra Pradesh. The project aims to produce 180 kilotonnes per annum of green hydrogen, converted into up to one million tons of green ammonia annually
- Hygenco Green Energies commissioned India’s first commercial and megawatt-scale green hydrogen plant in Hisar, Haryana last year. This project aims to deploy green hydrogen for decarbonizing hard-to-abate sectors like steel for one of India’s largest steel makers, Jindal Stainless Ltd., setting a precedent for more such projects and sustainable industrial decarbonisation
- ACME is planning large green ammonia plants, including a proposed 1.2 million ton/year project in Oman aimed at supplying Indian and global markets
India’s National Green Hydrogen Mission
India has emerged as a key champion of green hydrogen through its National Green Hydrogen Mission, launched in 2023. This initiative reflects India’s dual aims: to decarbonize its growing economy and to reduce reliance on imported fossil fuels. The government has set an ambitious target of producing 5 million metric tons of green hydrogen annually by 2030, backed by an initial investment of around USD 2.4 billion. By building a domestic green hydrogen industry, India also hopes to generate jobs and position itself as a future exporter of clean energy.
The mission lays out a comprehensive roadmap. One element is fostering domestic manufacturing of electrolyzers (the equipment that produces hydrogen from water), ensuring ample capacity is available at lower costs. Another element is direct support for hydrogen production and use. The government is incentivizing industries like fertilizers, refineries, and steel to start using green hydrogen, mandating that a certain percentage of their hydrogen consumption come from renewable sources by the end of this decade. A Green Hydrogen Certification program is underway to verify that hydrogen is produced with clean energy, which will support both domestic use and international trade.
Several pilot projects are already in motion across different sectors. In transportation, hydrogen fuel-cell buses have been introduced on a trial basis in cities such as New Delhi to showcase zero-emission public transit. Indian Railways is developing the country’s first hydrogen-powered train, aiming to retrofit a diesel train to run on hydrogen fuel cells for a short route as a proof of concept. In industry, leading Indian companies are testing hydrogen in steelmaking and refining, exploring how it can integrate into existing operations.
The maritime sector is also part of the push, with major ports slated to become hydrogen hubs where green hydrogen or ammonia can be produced and potentially exported. These efforts are complemented by state governments—over a dozen states have announced their own policies to support hydrogen—and by international partnerships. India is collaborating with countries like Japan, Australia, and Germany to attract investment, secure technology, and create supply chains for materials and equipment.
Through the National Green Hydrogen Mission, India is signalling to the world that it intends to be a front-runner in the hydrogen era. The coming years will reveal how quickly these plans translate into large-scale projects on the ground. If successful, India could not only clean up its own hard-to-abate sectors but also supply green hydrogen or ammonia to other nations seeking clean energy imports.
Under the mission, India is rapidly laying the groundwork for a green hydrogen supply chain. On the production side, incentives are in place to indigenize electrolyzer manufacturing. The government has launched a USD 2 billion Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for domestic electrolyzer factories, with a target of building 5 GW of annual manufacturing capacity.
By 2024, India had awarded the first tranche of its Strategic Interventions for Green Hydrogen Transition (SIGHT) program, selecting companies to set up 450,000 tons / year of green hydrogen production capacity. Several energy majors—Reliance, Adani, Indian Oil, NTPC, and renewables leader ReNew Power—have announced plans for gigawatt-scale electrolyzers, often partnering with global firms for technology. For example, L&T and IOCL are collaborating on PEM electrolyzer plants, while international players like Cummins and Toshiba are exploring joint ventures in India.
The mission also emphasizes enabling infrastructure. Proposals include green hydrogen hubs or “valleys” with co-located production and consumption, dedicated hydrogen corridors for transporting hydrogen from resource-rich regions (like solar belts in Rajasthan or Gujarat) to industrial clusters, and upgrades to ports for handling ammonia exports. On the fuelling front, a few hydrogen refuelling stations have been set up—such as one by IOC at their R&D center—and more are planned in Delhi, Gujarat, and Tamil Nadu as bus and truck pilots expand. However, India’s hydrogen refuelling network remains at an embryonic stage, with the initial strategy focusing on generating and using hydrogen on-site for pilots (as done in Leh) until demand scales enough to justify broader distribution infrastructure.
International Partnerships and Export Ambitions
India is leveraging diplomacy and trade partnerships to accelerate its green hydrogen goals. In 2022, India and Germany formed a Hydrogen Task Force, with Germany pledging €10 billion to support India’s clean energy transition, including green hydrogen production and infrastructure. Japan has also emerged as a key partner, with Japanese firms collaborating with Indian companies on technology development and pilot projects.
Australia is another strategic partner, given its renewable energy potential and expertise in hydrogen. Indian and Australian stakeholders are exploring joint ventures and knowledge-sharing initiatives to scale up hydrogen production and supply chains. These partnerships not only bring in financing and technology but also open up markets for green hydrogen exports.
The government’s focus on green ammonia production dovetails with this export ambition. Green ammonia is easier to transport than hydrogen and can serve as a zero-carbon fuel or feedstock in importing countries. Several Indian companies are already studying the feasibility of exporting green ammonia to markets like Europe and Japan, where demand for clean energy imports is rising.
These international collaborations and export opportunities position India to become a significant player in the global hydrogen economy. If successful, India could supply green hydrogen and its derivatives (like green ammonia) to global markets, while using the same technology to decarbonize its own industries and transportation systems.
Conclusion: Green Hydrogen’s Real-World Momentum
Green hydrogen is no longer just a futuristic idea—it’s entering real-world use across heavy transport, aviation, and heavy industry. Pilot projects around the world demonstrate that hydrogen can indeed replace fossil fuels in some of the most carbon-intensive sectors. Trucks and buses are already running on green hydrogen in Europe and Asia, while experimental aircraft and pilot plants for green jet fuel are showing aviation pathways. Steelmakers are producing fossil-free steel, and green ammonia shipments are crossing oceans.
Yet challenges remain. Infrastructure for hydrogen production, refuelling, and distribution is still sparse, and green hydrogen remains costlier than fossil alternatives in most cases. These hurdles must be overcome through policy support, carbon pricing, and sustained investment in technology and infrastructure.
India’s National Green Hydrogen Mission exemplifies how countries can foster this transition—through targeted support for electrolyzer manufacturing, pilot projects across sectors, and international partnerships. If these efforts continue to gain momentum, green hydrogen could become a cornerstone of global decarbonization strategies in the years ahead.
In the end, green hydrogen holds the promise to reshape how we power industries and transport goods, turning today’s pilot projects into tomorrow’s standard practices. The journey from niche to mainstream is well underway—now, it is about scaling up and delivering the zero-emission future the world urgently needs.