Shrikant Vaidya, chairman of Indian Oil Corporation Limited, officially opened a green hydrogen plant at L&T’s A M Naik heavy engineering complex in Hazira, Gujarat’s Surat, on Saturday afternoon. As a result, the plant has begun producing green hydrogen using an alkaline electrolysis method.
According to Subramanian Sarma, a full-time director and senior executive vice-president for energy at L&T, it is the first green hydrogen factory of its kind in the nation.
The plant will be powered by a rooftop solar plant with a peak DC capacity of 990 KW and a battery energy storage system with a 500 KWH capacity, and it has been planned for an electrolyser capacity of 800 KiloWatt based on both alkaline and PEM (420 KW).
While the company has planned for future expansion, a 380 KW alkaline electrolyser has been erected in the first phase.
The 3,000 square metre plant would be in charge of producing oxygen and hydrogen with a 99.99 percent purity level for use exclusively in manufacturing facilities. According to a corporate source, fuel will be a 15% hydrogen/natural gas mixture.
Following the opening ceremony, Subramaniam Sarma stated, “This project is in accordance with climate leadership targets of ‘Lakshya 2026,’ which will assist cut our and our clients’ annual emissions of greenhouse gases by about 300 tonnes.”
He continued, “This is a first-of-its-kind plant in the nation that has operations for digital automation and fire-fighting. Green hydrogen, which will be produced on a daily basis in the amount of 45 kilos, will be produced for the exclusive use of the company’s Hazira manufacturing complex. Starting construction on this plant and completing it took seven months. This plant will be expanded to serve both our clients and our other production sites. L&T has committed to using Green Hydrogen as a key component of its clean fuel adoption strategy in order to achieve water neutrality by 2035 and carbon neutrality by 2040.
Sarma provided more details about the efforts to lower the cost of hydrogen, stating that “when we scale up, the per unit cost would be decreased. Natural gas is used in this production. One kilogramme of hydrogen costs approximately $4 USD on a global scale, and as we scale up and expand over the next 8 to 9 years, the price will inevitably decrease due to the use of new technology. The Central Government has made it clear that it will require all refineries to employ hydrogen to eliminate sulphur. Desulphurized gasoline is utilised in the car, and a lot of hydrogen is required to do so. In natural gas, the hydrogen is brown.
Sarma went on to say that the business would introduce the idea of green hydrogen to all refineries in the public and private sectors in order to assist them in blending current brown hydrogen and introducing green hydrogen. According to him, there are also chances in the cement and steel industries, among other sectors.
