Boost for hydrogen mission, India gets first electrolyser unit in Bengaluru

This comes at a time when industry majors like RIL, Adani, Indian Oil Corporation, NTPC and Gail have evinced interest in becoming part of India's green hydrogen roadmap

Moving in line with the green hydrogen roadmap that Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in his Independence Day speech this year, US-based renewable energy company Ohmium International, through its Indian subsidiary, started India’s first green hydrogen electrolyser manufacturing unit at Bengaluru on Tuesday.

"The company is already in talks with some state-run majors and private players keen on hydrogen projects for supply of electrolysers from our electrolyser gigafactory in Karnataka," said Pashupathy Gopalan, an Ohmium Investor. This comes at a time when industry majors like Reliance Industries, Adani Group, state-run Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), NTPC and Gail India have evinced interest in becoming part of India's green hydrogen roadmap.

While blue hydrogen is created from fossil sources, where the carbon emissions are captured and stored, green hydrogen is made from non-fossil sources. To produce green hydrogen through any process, electrolysis is required. Electrolysis is the process used to split water into oxygen and hydrogen. An electrolyser is the system in which electrolysis is done, making it the most vital part in terms of making hydrogen economically viable.

“Making it in India will definitely give a cost advantage for manufacturers rather than going for imports,” said Arne Ballentine, founder of Ohmium International. The proton exchange membrane (PEM) hydrogen electrolyzer is at the heart of production of green hydrogen as it uses power generated from renewable resources to break water into hydrogen and oxygen, the company said.

The manufacture of electrolyser by Ohmium will ensure availability of end-to-end solution within the country and cut down dependence on imports for this key equipment. “The company aims to become a pioneer in enabling the production of Green Hydrogen in India, thereby making the nation ‘AatmaNirbhar’ in clean energy,” it said.

“The factory has a capacity of manufacturing approximately 0.5 GW per year today. But, we can quickly expand that to 2 GW per year,” Ballantine added. The idea of National Hydrogen Mission was first mooted in the Budget 2021 putting an effort to tap green energy sources for manufacturing hydrogen. India has already set a target of achieving 450 GW renewable energy by 2030. According to industry data, the world is currently producing around 70 million metric tonne of hydrogen (blue), out of which 6 MT is coming from India.