Oil India to set up 100 kW green hydrogen plant in Assam

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Oil India Ltd, a government-owned oil and gas company, is setting up a 100 kW green hydrogen production unit at its Jorhat oilfield in Assam. The plant at its Pump station-3 in Jorhat will generate green hydrogen using anion exchange membrane (AEM) technology.

The hydrogen so generated will be blended with natural gas using the existing infrastructure, said Pankaj Kumar Goswami, Director (Operations).

With this, Oil India has joined the list of state-owned oil and gas companies venturing to set up green hydrogen facilities in their decarbonization efforts.

Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), a State-owned oil and gas major with the largest number of refineries in India, has already launched an Expression of Interest to set up green hydrogen generation units at its Mathura (Uttar Pradesh) and Panipat (Haryana) refineries in India. The plants, to be on a ‘build-own-operate’ basis, will have installed capacities of 5,000 MT per annum and 2,000 MT per annum, respectively.

Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) is looking to buy a 10 MW electrolyzer to produce 4.5 tons of green hydrogen daily.

Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) is mulling a tender for a 20 MW electrolyzer to build the country’s largest green hydrogen plant.

According to a report by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), as of 2020, hydrogen demand in India was close to 6 million tonnes annually, with most of the demand coming from ammonia production and refineries.

Refineries use hydrogen in the de-sulfurization of crude oil to make petrol, diesel, etc. However, most hydrogen in India is produced using natural gas through steam methane (CH4) reforming and used in the refinery and fertilizer industries. The hydrogen so produced is termed ‘grey’ as the carbon byproduct leads to CO2 generation.

Green hydrogen is zero-carbon hydrogen production through the electrolysis of water (splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen) using renewable electricity.

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