INDIA'S HYDROGEN DREAMS

Reliance Industries’ big-bang entry into hydrogen is likely to accelerate development of the nascent industry, and play a critical role in India’s fight against climate change

- SUMANT BANERJI

INDIA’S LARGEST COMPANY, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), made a big splash last week when it announced plans to become a net-zero carbon company by 2035. The Mukesh Ambani-led company is investing ₹75,000 crore in clean energy projects. A part of it will be used to build an electrolyser and a fuel cell Giga factory, in a big boost to the country’s nascent hydrogen economy. Hydrogen is considered the best way to decarbonise by many industries.

“Green hydrogen will be a unique energy vector that can enable deep decarbonisation of many sectors such as transportation, industry and power. One of the most common methods of generating green hydrogen is by electrolysis of pure water through electrolysers,” Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani said at RIL’s annual general meeting on June 24. “This brings me to our third initiative — an Electrolyser Giga Factory to manufacture modular electrolysers of highest efficiency and lowest capital cost. These can be used for captive production of green hydrogen for domestic use as well as for global sale,” he added.

It did not come out of now here. RIL has been quietly laying the ground for the hydrogen industry of the future. In April this year, the company joined hands with Chart Industries, a Nasdaq-listed global manufacturer of high-end engineering equipment, to form the India H2 Alliance (IH2A). The purpose of the alliance is to work with the government to draw up a blueprint for commercialising hydrogen technologies and systems to build net-zero carbon pathways in India. Since then, JSW Steel has also joined the alliance.