Green hydrogen plant producing 10 kg per shift, says OIL Director (Operations)

Bengaluru: Oil India Limited (OIL) and its subsidiary Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL) are cruising well on their plans of achieving net-zero by 2040 to contribute towards India's plans of achieving it by 2070, said Pankaj Kumar Goswami, Director (Operations), OIL. During the ongoing #IndiaEnergyWeek in Bengaluru, PSU Watch spoke to Goswami to get a sense of the new initiatives being taken by the OIL management to meet this ambitious goal.

Read the excerpts:

Q. How do you see the company aligning with India's net zero plan?

A. India, as a nation, has announced the target to achieve net zero by 2070, but OIL, together with NRL, has a net zero goal of 2040. Towards this, we have taken certain new steps which will strengthen our green initiative and help us achieve net zero by 2040.

Q. Talking about E20 fuel which was rolled out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently. What is OIL's plan to ensure it?

A. As you can see from today's event happening here, India is quite ahead of what has been planned. We, along with Numaligarh Refinery Limited, have a joint-venture called Assam Bio Refinery Limited, where we are going for 2G which is first-of-its-kind. We have done end-to-end research on that and the main plant is going to be operational by the end of 2023.

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Q. The green hydrogen initiative is one of the main highlights of the event. Tell us more about it.

A. It is one of the new and strategic initiatives of Oil India Limited and one green hydrogen plant we have already commissioned in April 2022 in Jorhat in the state of Assam. That plant is giving green hydrogen of 10 kg per shift. We can take it up to 30 kg per day but have kept it at that level as per demand. OIL is also supporting a start-up that makes e-fuel cell bus that runs on green hydrogen. We are very lucky and happy that the Hon'ble PM flagged off the green hydrogen vehicles rally, of which this bus was a part.

Q. Talking about the overall trajectory of India's net-zero journey, what is the 360-degree plan of Oil India to reach that goal?

A. For net-zero goal, we have identified new initiatives and we are now not only an exploration and production (E&P) company but have diversified our portfolio into renewables as well. We have solar and wind energy plants situated in the state of Rajasthan and Gujarat. We have also ventured into city gas distribution (CGD) for better and cleaner fuel. Going forward, the government is also talking about turning India into a gas-based economy. So, these are the new initiatives that OIL is taking up.

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