Indian Oil to build India’s first green hydrogen plant at Mathura refinery

New Delhi: To strengthen its bouquet of clean energy offerings, Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) will build the nation's first 'Green Hydrogen' plant at its Mathura refinery, the company said on Friday. Hydrogen being the cleanest form of energy is the latest focus area across the globe to satiate the rising energy needs.

Green Hydrogen

Green hydrogen is derived from water electrolysis using renewable energy like solar or wind. Biomass-based hydrogen production technologies also qualify under the green category. On the other hand, Brown and grey hydrogen are produced through coal gasification and natural gas reforming, respectively. These production pathways generate a significant amount of carbon dioxide. Integration with appropriate carbon capture and utilisation technologies results in blue hydrogen.

"Indian Oil has drawn a strategic growth path to focus on its core refining and fuel marketing businesses while making bigger inroads into petrochemicals, hydrogen, and electric mobility over the next ten years", said Indian Oil Chairman Shrikant Madhav Vaidya.

"Indian Oil has a wind power project in Rajasthan. We intend to wheel that power to our Mathura refinery to produce absolutely green hydrogen through electrolysis," he added.

Why Mathura selected for the Green Hydrogen Plant?

Speaking upon the rationale behind the location Mathura, Vaidya said, "Mathura has been selected because of its proximity to TTZ (Taj Trapezium Zone). As we see it, the Green hydrogen will replace carbon-emitting fuels used in the refinery to process crude oil into value-added products such as petrol and diesel. Moreover, we have got several expansion plans down the line which are already approved. We will not have a captive power plant and will utilise power from the grid, preferably green power. This will help decarbonise some part of the manufacturing."

Underlining Indian Oil's ambitious plans to consolidate the core businesses, Vaidya remarked, "Petroleum refining and marketing with much higher petrochemicals integration will continue to be IndianOil's key focus area. We are going to add 25 million tonnes of refining capacity by the year 2023-24." He also said, "Forecasts by various agencies sees Indian fuel demand climbing to 400-450 million tonnes by 2040 as against 250 million tonnes now. This demand surge offers enough legroom for all forms of energy to co-exist. And, while exploring the multiple energy avenues, environmental conscience will be a critical priority for IndianOil. We are pushing ahead with research on carbon capture, utilisation and storage technologies."  

Speaking on this ambitious project, Indian Oil's Chairman Shrikant Madhav Vaidya said, "Indian Oil has drawn a strategic growth path to focus on its core refining and fuel marketing businesses while making bigger inroads into petrochemicals, hydrogen, and electric mobility over the next ten years."

Sharing his insights on Indian Oil's growing footprint in the green energy landscape, Vaidya added, "IndianOil has a wind power project in Rajasthan. We intend to wheel that power to our Mathura refinery to produce absolutely green hydrogen through electrolysis." He also elaborated on the project's rationale and said, "Mathura has been selected because of its proximity to TTZ (Taj Trapezium Zone). As we see it, the Green hydrogen will replace carbon-emitting fuels used in the refinery to process crude oil into value-added products such as petrol and diesel. Moreover, we have got several expansion plans down the line which are already approved. We will not have a captive power plant and will utilise power from the grid, preferably green power. This will help decarbonise some part of the manufacturing."

Underlining Indian Oil's ambitious plans to consolidate the core businesses, Vaidya remarked, "Petroleum refining and marketing with much higher petrochemicals integration will continue to be IndianOil's key focus area. We are going to add 25 million tonnes of refining capacity by the year 2023-24." He also said, "Forecasts by various agencies sees Indian fuel demand climbing to 400-450 million tonnes by 2040 as against 250 million tonnes now. This demand surge offers enough legroom for all forms of energy to co-exist. And, while exploring the multiple energy avenues, environmental conscience will be a critical priority for IndianOil. We are pushing ahead with research on carbon capture, utilisation and storage technologies".

"Hydrogen an emerging energy vertical"

Sharing his optimism about hydrogen as an emerging energy vertical Vaidya said, "There is a fresh momentum for scaling up hydrogen use across sectors globally. Indian Oil R&D Centre has emerged as a pioneering institute undertaking cutting edge research in all facets of hydrogen, including production, storage and applications like fuel cells. Our HCNG experiment in Delhi, wherein we converted 50 CNG BS-IV buses to run on HCNG fuel, has revealed significant benefits in reducing exhaust emissions and improving the fuel economy. Also, with the support of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas (MoPNG), Indian Oil is in the process of setting up ~1 tonne per day capacity pilot plants based on four innovative hydrogen production technologies, and we would also be operating 15 fuel cell buses in the Delhi NCR region along with Tata Motors. We recently shared a Statement of Intent (SoI) with the Norwegian company Greenstar to set up a Centre of Excellence on Hydrogen (CoE-H) in India to accelerate a gradual transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. We also intend to seed Hydrogen Mobility by commoditising the surplus quantities of hydrogen available at the Gujarat refinery with a hydrogen dispensing facility for Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles. Initially, this facility will be refuelling 25 buses per day with a ramp-up capability to refuel 75 fuel cell buses per day".

The project is expected to be operational soon, running the first set of buses from Gujarat Refinery to the Statue of Unity and other iconic sites in the vicinity, the Chairman added.