India’s largest oil firm Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) will build the country’s first ‘green hydrogen’ plant at its Mathura refinery. The move aims to prepare for a future catering to the growing demand for both oil and clean energy.
Green hydrogen will be produced by leveraging the company’s wind power project in northwest Rajasthan state, using that electricity to produce hydrogen via electrolysis, said IOC’s Chairman Shrikant Madhav Vaidya. The hydrogen will be used to replace fuels consumed at the refinery while converting crude to transport fuels.
The company has drawn a strategic growth path that aims to maintain focus on its core refining and fuel marketing businesses while making bigger inroads into petrochemicals, hydrogen and electric mobility over the next 10 years.
This will be the nation’s first green hydrogen unit. Previously, projects have been announced to produce ‘grey hydrogen’ using fossil fuels such as natural gas, he added.
Hydrogen, he said, would be a fuel of the future. IOC is planning to set up several hydrogen production units on a pilot basis.
He also added that the company will not be setting captive power plants at its future refinery and petrochemical expansion projects. It will instead use the 250 MW of electricity the company produces from renewable sources like solar power.
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