(B.S)
India’s largest oil firm IOC will set up ‘green hydrogen’ plants at its Mathura and Panipat refineries by 2024 to replace carbon-emitting units as it sees the just announced green hydrogen policy as a watershed moment in the country’s energy transition that will help cut costs. SSV Ramakumar, Director for Research and Development at Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), says the new policy will help cut the cost of manufacturing green hydrogen by 40-50 per cent. “This (policy) is the single biggest enabler by the state for production of green hydrogen,” he told PTI here.
Oil refineries, fertiliser plants and steel units use hydrogen as process fuel to produce finished products. In refineries, hydrogen is used to remove excess sulphur from petrol and diesel. This hydrogen presently is produced from fossil fuels such as natural gas or naphtha and results in carbon emissions. IOC plans to set up a 40 MW electrolyzer at Mathura refinery and a 15 MW unit at Panipat unit in Haryana, he said, adding the firm is targeting to produce 70,000 tonnes a year of green hydrogen by 2030, accounting for 10 per cent of its overall consumption by that time. Across all refineries, the current hydrogen demand is about 1.4 million tonnes, which is projected to rise to 2.6 million tonnes by 2030. He said IOC is also exploring manufacturing of electrolyzers or outsourcing the production of green hydrogen. India is targeting 15 gigawatts (GW) of electrolyzer-making capacity and is considering production-linked incentives to encourage local manufacturing.
