RAS question
What is the only byproduct of the hydrogen fuel cell technology used in India's first hydrogen-powered passenger vessel?
Correct answer: (B) Water.
The hydrogen fuel cell technology used in India’s first hydrogen-powered passenger vessel releases only water as its byproduct.
Explanation
India’s first fully indigenous hydrogen fuel cell passenger vessel, flagged off for commercial operation at Namo Ghat in Varanasi, uses a Low Temperature Proton Exchange Membrane fuel cell system. The system converts stored hydrogen into electricity for propulsion, which is why the vessel is presented as a zero-emission maritime technology. PIB states that this process releases only water as a byproduct, and also describes the vessel’s urban water-transport benefit as zero smoke and zero pollution with only water as emissions. Carbon dioxide, nitrogen and methane are therefore eliminated as possible byproducts.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Carbon dioxide is wrong because PIB describes the vessel as using hydrogen fuel cell propulsion with only water released as the byproduct, not a carbon-based exhaust gas.
- (C) Nitrogen is wrong because the fuel-cell process produces water, not atmospheric nitrogen, as the output.
- (D) Methane is wrong because methane is not an emission or byproduct of the vessel’s Low Temperature Proton Exchange Membrane fuel cell system.
Concept
This tests clean-energy technology under Science and Technology, especially the practical use of hydrogen fuel cells in transport. It recurs in RAS because questions often link basic technology concepts with current government-backed applications.