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The Indian public sector oil refineries have collectively deliberate to set up 137 kilo tonnes every year (ktpa) of green hydrogen services by 2030.
This was revealed by Dr S S V Ramakumar, Director – R&D, Indian Oil Corporation, on the India Energy Week, held not too long ago in Bengaluru. Participating in a panel dialogue on green hydrogen, Ramakumar stated Indian Oil would first put up a 7 ktpa electrolysis plant at its Panipat refinery.
He identified that IOC had entered into an settlement with the renewable vitality firm, ReNew Power and the engineering main, L&T, for placing up green hydrogen crops, not just for IOC however for different refiners additionally.
Read additionally: H2e Power to set up SOFC charging stations at IOC outlets
Technology quadrilemma
“The final phrase on the (green hydrogen manufacturing) expertise has not but been spoken,” he stated, noting that even when one had been to assume that electrolysis of water is the one pathway to produce green hydrogen, nonetheless we aren’t very positive as to which kind of electrolysers is the very best.
There are two mature applied sciences, alkaline and PEM, and each have their very own deserves and demerits, Ramakumar stated. The third one, stable oxide, “which is projected to be a super-duper expertise, is at TRL 3 or 4.” (TRL is ‘expertise readiness degree’; degree 3 or 4 refers to fairly low ranges of readiness.)
More learn: The Green methods of producing hydrogen
“But there’s a fourth child on the block, which goes to deal with the demerits of each the mature applied sciences, which is known as anion alternate membrane, or AEM – for the straightforward undeniable fact that it (AEM) doesn’t make use of any platinum group of metals. “It relies on transition parts, so it’s less expensive, and the electrolyte can be a lot dilute—so lot of issues are solved,” stated the Director R&D.
Even that expertise is TRL 2 or 3, he stated.
As a rustic, all of the analysis establishments want to consider AEM expertise—if we wish to undertake the electrolysis expertise pathway, Ramakumar stated.
(While Ramakumar has stated that ‘stable oxide’ and AEM are at low expertise readiness ranges, an trade skilled who participated within the India Energy Week, instructed businessline that stable oxide electrolysers are already out there. For instance, the US firm, Bloom Energy, sells stable oxide electrolysers. Also, a Pune-based firm referred to as H2e Power, has already provided AEM electrolysers to Oil India Ltd and is preparing to showcase its home-grown AEM electroloysers (although developed with the assistance of the Fraunhofer Institute of Germany) on the upcoming Hannover Messe truthful later this yr. Business Line has earlier reported that H2e Power will begin producing electrolysers at Jalagaon, Maharashtra in April. Indeed, the corporate intends to additionally use stable oxide electrolysers, which function at excessive temperatures, to convert carbon dioxide into ‘syn fuel’ (a mix of carbon monoxide and hydrogen), after which use the syn fuel to produce ‘sustainable aviation fuels’.)
Read extra: IOC plans hydrogen production units
Biomass is the very best
While IOC has deliberate green hydrogen manufacturing by electrolysis, i.e., splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen with electrical energy, Ramakumar stated that the biomass gasification was a greater method of manufacturing green hydrogen in India.
Noting that there’s a debate as to whether or not electrolysis is the one pathway or there are different “India-centric applied sciences”, Ramakumar stated,“ my very own private view is that biomass gasification is essentially the most promising green hydrogen pathway, particularly to obtain the aspirational goal of 1:1:1 (reaching a value of $1 per kg of green hydrogen in a single decade.)”
Describing the biomass route as “very, very promising”, he stated that the route doesn’t endure from the demerits of electrolysers, a giant certainly one of which is the necessity for big portions water. While sea water electrolysis is being “intensely appeared into” at this time’s electrolysers require pure water, Ramakumar stated.
Also learn: Dollar-a-kg hydrogen?
The view that the biomass route is best is shared by many specialists. For instance, Ravi Pandit, Chairman and C-founder, KPIT Technologies, wrote in a newspaper not too long ago that whereas a kg of hydrogen produced by electrolysis prices ₹600-800, which interprets to 45-50 per cent larger than diesel in autos, small, decentralised biomass crops can produce green hydrogen for ₹250 a kg.
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