Reliance to produce blue hydrogen for $ 1.2 - 1.5 per kg from its Jamnagar refinery, plans biomass-fed green hydrogen plants

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) says it will produce blue hydrogen at $ 1.2 - 1.5 a kg at its Jamnagar oil refinery, but re-purposing its gasifier assets. 

The gasifier assets are to be transfered to a subsidiary, Reliance Syngas, at a valuation of Rs 30,000 crore. 

In an investor presentation of Feb 11, Reliance said, "with CCUS, RIL can be one of the largest producers of blue hydrogen globally."

"Till the cost of green hydrogen comes down, RIL can be the first mover to establish a hydrogen ecosystem, with minimal incremental investment, in India," the presentation says. 

                                                     RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani

It says that its gasification plant was set up to produce syngas for energy needs of the complex, and provide a platform for future growth in high value chemicals. But now, the syn gas would be used to produce hydrogen. 

Once Reliance moves to green hydrogen--it says it explore both electrolysis and biomass-fed gasification for that purpose--the syn gas could once again be made use of to produce an assortment of chemicals.

But till green hydrogen comes, Reliance will be producing blue hydrogen, capturing the carbon dioxide coming out of the hydrogen production unit and making use of it. "Hydrogen production from gasification provides highly concentrated CO2 stream which provides unique opportunity to capture ~15 MMTPA of CO2 at 30% of typical cost of carbon capture," the presentation says.