At a time when leading Indian companies like Reliance Industries Ltd and Adani Group are betting big on renewables with a special focus on hydrogen production, Indian government-owned National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) in association with Gujarat Gas is also planning an ambitious project to blend hydrogen with piped natural gas (PNG).
To begin with, NTPC aims to reach out to its 200-home housing colony at Kawas near Surat by using about 100 cm/d of PNG where it will initially blend hydrogen to the extent of 5% for domestic use, to be later ramped up to 20%.
"The residential township project will be the first of its kind in the country where we plan to blend green hydrogen in the city gas distribution (CGD) network. Once this is successful, we plan to roll it out in various cities and towns of India with our CGD partner," said an official of NTPC aware of the development.
He said that similar pilot projects have been carried out in countries like Australia and UK where they have been successful and are now awaiting commercial rollout.
NTPC floated an EoI for Indian and global companies to set up the pilot project on green hydrogen blending with natural gas in the CGD, which received an overwhelming response, the official said.
Through the EoI process, NTPC aims to identify companies capable of providing hydrogen blending solutions for the pilot project of 100 cm/d gas. Once the EoI process is over, NTPC will float a tender in the next two months or so. The successful bidder will have to design a blending system, select the technology for electrolyser and hydrogen storage system.
In his latest Independence Day speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had stressed upon the importance of India to transform into a hydrogen-based economy while announcing the launch of the National Hydrogen Mission.
The company aims to roll out the pilot project by the end of this financial year.
