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Dead on Arrival: Pune’s Waste-to-Hydrogen Folly
How a $54M plasma gasification project collapsed under basic math, physics, and economics.
The EU-India Clean Energy and Climate Partnership included a plan to develop a waste-to-hydrogen facility in Pune, led by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and The Green Billions Limited (TGBL). The ₹450 crore ($54M) project was intended to process 3.8 million metric tons of waste using Refuse-Derived Fuel (RDF) and plasma gasification technology to produce 10 tons of hydrogen daily. Unsurprisingly, the economics made no sense, it would have been a climate action failure, and the plan didn’t get out of the starting gate, never mind to the finish line.
Waste-to-hydrogen is being positioned as a potential solution for waste management by converting municipal solid waste into hydrogen through processes like plasma gasification and RDF treatment. This approach seeks to divert waste from landfills while producing a fuel that can be used in industrial applications or transportation. However, waste-to-hydrogen remains an emerging technology with high capital costs, energy-intensive processes, and questions about lifecycle emissions, particularly if the hydrogen is ultimately used in inefficient applications.
