Thermax enters the green hydrogen market in partnership with Fortescue Future Industries

Thermax Limited, a leading energy and environment solutions provider, and Fortescue Future Industries (FFI), an Australia-based green energy and green technology company, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore green hydrogen projects – including new manufacturing facilities – in India. 

Under the MoU, Thermax and FFI plan to explore opportunities to jointly develop fully integrated green hydrogen projects for commercial and industrial customers in India, according to a Thermax press release.

In July 2021, Fortescue Future had signed up with JSW Future Energy, for green hydrogen. It is not clear as to whether the Australian company would pursue both partnerships, or the one with JSW is off.

The production of green hydrogen at an industrial scale would be a major step forward in decarbonising hard-to-abate industries in India, such as refineries, fertilisers and steel.

The MoU between Thermax and FFI also contemplates the potential collaboration of the parties in the development of new manufacturing facilities to support green energy projects in India.

The Performance Linked Incentive (PLI scheme), under India’s National Green Hydrogen Mission, could be leveraged for setting up any new manufacturing capacity.

In addition to meeting the domestic requirements, electrolysers and subsystems could potentially be used for export internationally.

Fortescue Metals Group’s experience in managing large-scale projects in its iron ore business provides FFI – Fortescue’s green energy arm – with a strong platform to expand into manufacturing projects in green hydrogen.

FFI is in the process of constructing a world-leading Green Energy Manufacturing Centre in Gladstone, Queensland. The first phase of the project involves the construction of an electrolyser manufacturing facility, with a targeted initial output capacity of 2GW per annum.

Thermax will bring its vast experience in EPC and supply chain to the collaboration.

Expressing his thoughts on the collaboration, Ashish Bhandari, MD & CEO, Thermax, said, “The collaboration with Fortescue Future Industries is perfectly timed to leverage the massive potential of the Indian green energy market that presents a multitude of opportunities, backed by favourable policies and incentives. Furthermore, the recent approval of the National Green Hydrogen Mission by India's Union Cabinet, which aims to increase domestic production of green hydrogen to 5 MMT per annum by 2030 and reduce fossil fuel imports by over Rs. 1 lakh crore, is a significant boost. With all these factors working in our favour, we are confident that our association will be successful.”

FFI CEO Mark Hutchinson said, “FFI is on a mission to replace fossil fuels by producing green electrons from renewable energy and then converting these green electrons into green hydrogen. Through the National Green Hydrogen Mission, the Indian Government has shown that it is committed to developing its green hydrogen industry to help the country decarbonise. We are thrilled to be working with Thermax and believe that this MOU with a company of such high standing will help us in our mission to eliminate emissions.”

India's first commercial scale biomass-based green hydrogen breaks ground

On March 3, Aranayak Fuel and Power broke ground on its Rs 50-crore, 1 tonne-per-day, biomass-based green hydrogen plant in Mirzapur district of Uttar Pradesh. The company had signed an MoU with the state government during the recently held ‘global investors’ meet’ in Uttar Pradesh.  

The plant, which aims to begin production of green hydrogen on August 15, will be India’s first commercial-scale biomass-based green hydrogen project, Business Line has reported.  

                                           Prof Preetham Singh lighting the ceremonial fire on the occasion of the                                                     ground-breaking for the biomass-based hydrogen plant

( Business Line had reported in February 2022 that the distinction of being the country’s first large-scale biomass-based hydrogen plant could well go to a 1 TPD plant of Watamo Energies, that was to come up in Khandwa district of Madhya Pradesh. But it is learnt that the project is behind schedule.)  

Aranayak Fuel and Power, a company set up by a group of Uttar Pradesh businessmen, will consume 30 TPD of biomass (wood scrap) and produce hydrogen at a cost of around Rs 700 a kg. Biezel Green Energy, a company set up by Prof Preetham Singh of IIT, BHU, is the technology provider. Prof Singh has developed a ‘thermally accelerated anerobic digestor’ (TAD), which is a reactor that produces hydrogen, methane and bio-coal from biomass.  

Prof Singh told businessline that many companies, notably Hindalco, had come forward to buy the hydrogen; so, selling was not a problem. The process also produces 3.6 TPD of methane and 7.5 TPD of bio-coal as co-products; GAIL will buy the gas. 

Also read: Sugar diversion towards ethanol up 38% as mills rush to improve biofuel supply

He explained that the TAD technology involves a “novel fractionation process”, capable of extracting 30-40 grams of hydrogen, 120 grams of methane and 250 g of bio-coal from a kg of biomass, assuming the gross calorific value of biomass at 7,000 kcal/kg. To put it in another way, the reactor would use 30 kWhr of electricity and 30 kg of biomass to produce 1 kg of fuel-cell grade hydrogen and other co-products. 

Swaraj Green Power and Fuel Ltd, promoted by Ranjeetsinha Hindurao Naik-Nimbalkar, BJP MP from Madha, Maharashtra, is putting up a 3.5 TPD of biomass-based green hydrogen, with Biezel Green’s technology, investing roughly Rs 100 crore. 

Many experts have noted that in agri-residue-rich India, the biomass route is the better than the electrolysis route for producing green hydrogen. At the India Energy Week that was held in Bengaluru earlier this month, Indian Oil Corporation’s Director-R&D, Dr SSV Ramakumar, described the biomass-route as “very, very promising”, that does not suffer from the demerits of electrolysis, such as the requirement of large quantities of pure water. 

 

Danish company, Umwelt Energy, to invest $850 m in green hydrogen and methanol plant in Tamil Nadu

Umwelt Energy, a Denmark-based company, has decided to invest $850 million in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu to build an integrated complex that would include 500 MW of wind-solar hybrid power plants, a green hydrogen facility and a methanol plant.

The proposed green methanol plant would be capable of producing 100,000 tons per year of the chemical, by combining the green hydrogen from the electrolysers and combining it with biogenic carbon dioxide. 

Quoting the company's CEO, Alexander Eriksen, Business Line has reported that the company would need 2,000 acres of land. It is learnt that the company has ensured availability of the lands, in the Tuticorin district, which has a port of international standards.The paper says that Eriksen and Vutukuri were in Chennai as part of an energy delegation that visited the IIT Madras Research Park here, along with His Royal Highness, Federik, the Crown Prince of Denmark on Wednesday. The delegation also took part in a conference on  ‘next generation fuels’. 

“Our project platforms integrate renewable power generation, electrolysis plants for green hydrogen, and eFuel synthesis plants for methanol, ammonia, kerosine and gasoline,” says the company’s website. Off-takers for our eFuel products will include maritime and aviation customers, while heavy industry players can abate their CO2 emissions using the green hydrogen we produce, it says.  

Department of Science and Technology, German Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems tie-up for hydrogen research

The Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, has signed a Letter of Intent with the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Fraunhofer ISE) for long-term collaboration on hydrogen technologies. 

The LoI was signed on 25th February, 2023, by Dr. Anita Gupta, Scientist G and Head, Energy Technologies Cell, DST and Prof. Dr. Christopher Hebling, Director, Division Hydrogen Technologies, Fraunhofer ISE in the presence of Secretary, DST, Dr. S. Chandrasekhar. The event was also attended by Mr. R. Madhan, Director, Indo-German Science & Technology Centre (IGSTC), Ms Anandi Iyer, Director Fraunhofer India and officials representing both the sides. 

India and Germany share the goal of decarbonizing their economies and are committed to collaborating jointly in the pursuit of energy security and climate protection. Both countries have committed to develop a national green hydrogen economy to facilitate achievement of the Paris Agreement targets. 

The LoI will trigger development of higher Technology Readiness Level (TRL) for hydrogen energy clusters being set up by DST and identify existing technologies and potential interventions from Fraunhofer in green hydrogen, integrate them with indigenous technologies, and deploy /calibrate them for Indian conditions. 

DST will provide the enabling framework for cooperation in the hydrogen valley cluster projects, support activities, and facilitate the resources needed wherever applicable and possible. Meanwhile Fraunhofer acts as a technology partner for the hydrogen valley /cluster, provides information and access to technologies of TRL 5 – 8, scientific and technical experts, collaboration in preparing technology roadmaps and guidelines for innovation ecosystem/cluster. 

 

Avaada to put up 4GW of RE plants to support 1 mtpa green ammonia ambition

The Avaada group, which plans to build a 1 million-tons-a-year green ammonia project, is working towards putting up 4 GW of renewable energy capacity to support the ambition. The renewable energy will be used to split water and produce green hydrogen, a raw material for green ammonia.  

The venture into green ammonia would call for around 210,000 tons per annum of green hydrogen production.

3GW of solar capacity is coming up in Rajasthan; when it will be commissioned in 2026-27, it might, well be the country’s largest single location solar plant, Vineet Mittal, Chairman, Avaada Group, reports businessline. 

Manufacturing electrolysers

Avaada also intends to get into the manufacture of electrolysers, for which it is in talks with a few foreign companies.

Overall, Avaada would invest $5 billion into the green ammonia business, Mittal said. 

Avaada was born in 2016, soon after Welspun Renewable Energy, co-founded by Mittal that had a portfolio of 1.14 GW of renewable energy assets, was sold off to Tata Power Renewables for ₹9,250 crore. Today, Avaada has 4GW of wind and solar plants in operation; another 7 GW is planned, including 1 GW under construction. 

Total's pause may hit Adani's green hydrogen venture

 

Total Energies' decision to pause $4-billion investment in a green hydrogen venture with Adani Group, pending audits of the Indian conglomerate accused of fraud by an US investor, will impact the project’s growth funding as the French energy major was to also guarantee half of its debt, reports Economic Times.

This could be a big blow for the new venture’s timelines of production of green hydrogen at $1 per kg by 2030.

Indian PSU refiners to set up 137,000 tpa green hydrogen facility by 2030

 The Indian public sector oil refineries have together planned to set up 137 kilo tonnes per annum (ktpa) of green hydrogen facilities by 2030. 

This was revealed by Dr S S V Ramakumar, Director – R&D, Indian Oil Corporation, at the India Energy Week, held recently in Bengaluru. Participating in a panel discussion on green hydrogen, Ramakumar said Indian Oil would first put up a 7 ktpa electrolysis plant at its Panipat refinery. 

He pointed out that IOC had entered into an agreement with the renewable energy company, ReNew Power and the engineering major, L&T, for putting up green hydrogen plants, not only for IOC but for other refiners also. 

Technology quadrilemma 

“The last word on the (green hydrogen production) technology has not yet been spoken,” he said, noting that even if one were to assume that electrolysis of water is the only pathway to produce green hydrogen, still we are not very sure as to which type of electrolysers is the best. 

There are two mature technologies, alkaline and PEM, and both have their own merits and demerits, Ramakumar said. The third one, solid oxide, “which is projected to be a super-duper technology, is at TRL 3 or 4.” (TRL is ‘technology readiness level’; level 3 or 4 refers to quite low levels of readiness.) 

“But there is a fourth kid on the block, which is going to address the demerits of both the mature technologies, which is called anion exchange membrane, or AEM – for the simple fact that it (AEM) doesn’t employ any platinum group of metals. “It is based on transition elements, so it is much cheaper, and the electrolyte is also much dilute—so lot of problems are solved,” said the Director R&D.  

Even that technology is TRL 2 or 3, he said. 

As a country, all the research institutions need to concentrate on AEM technology—if we want to adopt the electrolysis technology pathway, Ramakumar said. 

(While Ramakumar has said that ‘solid oxide’ and AEM are at low technology readiness levels, an industry expert who participated in the India Energy Week, told businessline that solid oxide electrolysers are already in the market. For example, the US company, Bloom Energy, sells solid oxide electrolysers. Also, a Pune-based company called H2e Power, has already supplied AEM electrolysers to Oil India Ltd and is getting ready to showcase its home-grown AEM electroloysers (though developed with the help of the Fraunhofer Institute of Germany) at the upcoming Hannover Messe fair later this year. Business Line has earlier reported that H2e Power will start producing electrolysers at Jalagaon, Maharashtra in April. Indeed, the company intends to also use solid oxide electrolysers, which operate at high temperatures, to convert carbon dioxide into ‘syn gas’ (a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen), and then use the syn gas to produce ‘sustainable aviation fuels’.) 

Biomass is the best 

While IOC has planned green hydrogen production by electrolysis, i.e., splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen with electricity, Ramakumar said that the biomass gasification was a better way of producing green hydrogen in India. 

Noting that there is a debate as to whether electrolysis is the only pathway or there are other “India-centric technologies”, Ramakumar said,“ my own personal view is that biomass gasification is the most promising green hydrogen pathway, especially to achieve the aspirational target of 1:1:1 (achieving a price of $1 per kg of green hydrogen in one decade.)” 

Describing the biomass route as “very, very promising”, he said that the route does not suffer from the demerits of electrolysers, a big one of which is the need for large quantities water. While sea water electrolysis is being “intensely looked into” today’s electrolysers require pure water, Ramakumar said. 

The view that the biomass route is better is shared by many experts. For example, Ravi Pandit, Chairman and C-founder, KPIT Technologies, wrote in a newspaper recently that while a kg of hydrogen produced by electrolysis costs ₹600-800, which translates to 45-50 per cent higher than diesel in vehicles, small, decentralised biomass plants can produce green hydrogen for ₹250 a kg.