New Delhi: The availability of green hydrogen as a fuel will help reduce India's dependence on coal for steel making, Tata Steel CEO and MD TV Narendran said on Tuesday.

Narendran made the remark at the National Management Convention session of All India Management Association (AIMA) held in New Delhi.

"The way steel is made is changing and will continue to change further, as the industry is putting up new plants... Availability of hydrogen as a fuel and reductive is the key to reducing dependence on coal," he said, adding that scrap will replace ore as the main input.

In January 2023, the Union Cabinet approved the National Green Hydrogen Mission with an outlay of Rs 19,744 crore with an aim to make India a global hub for manufacturing this clean source of energy.

Tata Steel plans to scale up the usage of hydrogen in the steel-making process after the successful completion of the pilot project at its Jamshedpur plant in Jharkhand, Narendran told PTI recently.

In April 2023, Tata Steel commenced the first of its kind experiment injecting hydrogen gas using 40 per cent of the injection systems in an E-blast furnace at its steel plant in Jamshedpur.

Addressing the session, he said, "India must have supportive policies, and the customers should be willing to pay if the Indian steel industry is to offer green steel. The global steel industry contributes 8 per cent of the total emissions, and governments in Europe are discussing green steel with the industry. There is a cost of not changing also."

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