Page 160 - CW E-Magazine (10-6-2025)

Special Report

IIT BOMBAY ROUNDTABLE
Exploring viability, incentives, and pilot models for

green hydrogen adoption in India’s chemical industry

ecently the Sustainability Hub Burns & McDonell, CBR Energy, RAHUL NABAR
at IIT Bombay (Research Hub J&K Energy, John Cockrell, L&T, SANJAY MAHAJANI
Rfor Green Energy and Sustain- Praj, Pune Hydrogen Valley, Department of Chemical Engineering,
ability, GESH https://www.geshiitb. Thyssenkrupp Nucera, Waree, Worley. IIT Bombay
in/) organized a roundtable discussion  Hydrogen consumers from the E-mail: rahul.nabar@iitb.ac.in
on Green Hydrogen specifi cally tar- chemicals sector – e.g., Aarti Indus-
geting the chemicals sector. The event tries, Alkyl Amines, Eternis, GAIL, hydrogenation, unlike in trans-
was organized jointly with the Mumbai Godrej, HPCL, Ion Exchange, port (where electric vehicles, EVs,
Region Chapter of the Indian Institute Vinati Organics. compete).
of Chemical Engineers. We provide  Experts, think tanks and consult-  Right project scale: Current green
here a brief summary of the discus- ing fi rms with a practice in the hydrogen projects (~10-50 MW)
sions. A more detailed whitepaper on green hydrogen area – e.g., AMAI, match chemical plant needs.
the topic will be published shortly. CEEW, EY-Parthenon, IESA,  High grey hydrogen prices: Smaller
KPMG, TERI. producers (typically using methanol
Setting the context: Green hydrogen reforming) pay Rs. 300-450/kg for
for chemicals – Why now? The Indian Chemical Council and delivered hydrogen – making green
Despite signifi cant attention to the Ministry of New and Renewable hydrogen nearly competitive with-
green hydrogen in sectors like steel, Energy also participated along with out large subsidies.
refi ning, and transport, the chemical CSIR-NCL, Pune.  Existing infrastructure: Hydrogen
industry – both commodity and specialty – use is well-established; no new
has received little focus. Yet, this Why chemicals are a prime candi- permits or infrastructure is needed.
sector already consumes large volumes date for early green H adoption
2
of grey hydrogen. This roundtable Globally around 100-mt of hydro- It makes strategic sense to replace
aimed to examine whether green hydro- gen are consumed annually and per- existing grey hydrogen uses with
gen is now viable for chemical applica- haps 6-mt in India. Almost all of this green before stimulating entirely new
tions, and what incentives or policies hydrogen is grey and the corresponding applications.
might accelerate adoption. carbon dioxide (CO ) emissions would
2
exceed 1 Gigaton per year. The business case for switching from
The participants in the Round- grey to green hydrogen
table Discussion were carefully invited The chemical sector is particularly A switch to green hydrogen would
broadly to present three distinct suited for early adoption of green be viable for certain sub-segments of
perspectives: hydrogen for multiple reasons: the chemical sector specifi cally for
 Green hydrogen producers and  Non-substitutable demand: Hydro- users already paying high prices for
technology vendors – e.g., Aker, gen is irreplaceable in reactions like grey hydrogen. Green hydrogen pro-
ducers cited a current Levelized Cost of
Hydrogen (LCOH) of Rs. 400-500/kg,
which is within reach for many chemi-
cal producers relying on trucked-in
or cylinder H . Unlike sectors such as
2
mobility or refi ning (which use highly
effi cient Steam Methane Reforming,
SMR), where cost gaps remain wide,
chemical users are closer to parity.
For electrolyser manufacturers facing
weak demand and underutilization, the

160 Chemical Weekly June 10, 2025

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