Sembcorp Industries sets ball rolling for Rs 36,000 crore TN project

The green hydrogen unit of Singapore’s Sembcorp Industries Ltd has started signing initial contracts for a Rs 36,238 crore investment to build a green hydrogen unit in Thoothukudi district in Tamil Nadu.

The company has awarded an engineering design study (first phase of the front-end engineering design) contract to Italy-based Maire's engineering and construction solutions arm Tecnimont, together with its sustainable technology solutions arm Nextchem. According to a statement, the contract is for a 'green ammonia plant to be located in India' by Sembcorp Green Hydrogen India.

A memorandum of understanding for the unit was signed between the Tamil Nadu government and Sembcorp earlier this year, based on which around 1,511 jobs will be created in the Thoothukudi area. Following this, Sembcorp teamed up with Japanese players like Sojitz Corp and Kyushu Electric Power to export India-made green hydrogen to Japan.

The study will leverage Nextchem’s digital tool ArcHy (Architecture of Hydrogen systems) to overcome the challenge of the intermittency of renewable power usage, resulting in capex and opex efficiency of the plant lifecycle, said a statement by Maire.

In particular, the ArcHy digital tool will use renewable energy production profiles, collected over a one-year period in different weather scenarios, to determine the size of the plant’s components like the electrolyzers, storage systems, and green ammonia production facilities with the aim of minimising the levelised cost of ammonia.

Based on the results of this analysis, TCMPL will design all the elements of the facility by providing highly specialised engineering services. Alessandro Bernini, Maire's chief executive officer, commented: “Our engagement in energy transition projects around the world, particularly in green ammonia plants, testifies to the Group’s reliability at all levels in proposing engineering and technological solutions that meet the industry’s decarbonisation and cost-efficiency requirements, also thanks to our synergic and integrated approach.”