Green fuels to power Adani Enterprises' petrochemicals business

Adani Enterprises, which recently launched its petrochemicals arm, is planning to offer a range of green fuels and use its existing supply chains and renewable energy units for their production andtransport. The company plans to manufacture green hydrogen, green methanol, green ammonia and green fertiliser, said senior executives.

For each fuel, Adani is planning to reach out to different sets of buyers. It will also participate in tenders that the government is planning for green hydrogen and fertilisers.

With this, Adani Enterprises is pitting itself against Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) which has a major presence in the petrochemicals business and has recently announced its foray into the green energy and green fuel business with its  Rs 75,000 crore investment plan.

In August this year, Adani announced a wholly-owned subsidiary, Adani Petrochemicals Ltd, which will set up “refineries, petrochemicals complexes, specialty chemicals units, hydrogen and related chemicals plants”, the company said.

In the first leg of pilot projects for its green fuels, Adani is joining hands with leading commercial vehicle maker, Ashok Leyland, to supply green methanol for a select fleet of the automaker. Sources said that Adani will start a pilot with VRL Logistics, which has the largest fleet of Ashok Leyland’s commercial vehicles, to run 250 vehicles on 10 per cent blended green methanol.

“Close to 250 of the commercial vehicle fleet of VRL will be powered with 10 per cent green methanol. The IC engines require minor retrofit for it to run on blended methanol. The plan has been approved by VRL and the deployment will begin soon,” said senior executives of the company.

When asked about its tie-up with the Adani Group, N Saravanan, chief technology officer, Ashok Leyland, told Business Standard, “We are working on multiple alternate fuels such as compressed natural gas/liquefied natural gas, methanol, and H2 (hydrogen) with various key partners and look forward to having a complete portfolio of commercial vehicles in the alternate fuel area in the next two-three years.”

Ashok Leyland was also in talks with the Kerala transport department to run public transport and steamers on 10 per cent methanol blended fuel.

An email sent to the spokesperson of Adani Enterprises to comment on the matter remained unanswered till the time of going to print.  

The move by Adani and RIL comes at a time when the Central government through Niti Aayog has set the roadmap to move towards a ‘Methanol Economy’. A working paper released last month said that the strategy is to reduce the country’s import bill, cut emissions and also convert municipal solid waste into methanol.

 Adani will be deploying its renewable energy generation units, its Mundra- based solar manufacturing unit, existing liquified natural gas (LNG) supply chain, and its compressed natural gas (CNG) network for the production and supply of these green fuels. In 2019 the company signed a partnership with Total, one of the world’s largest LNG companies, to build an integrated gas utility. The joint venture will develop regasification terminals, including the Dhamra LNG terminal in Gujarat, and sell LNG in the Indian markets, and through Adani Gas, build a CNG network for household supply and mobility.

Adani Petrochem is also looking to participate in the green hydrogen mission of the Centre and the tenders that will be floated as part of it. The Centre is working on demand aggregator-based tenders for green hydrogen and green fertilisers, as reported in this paper. Officials said the standard bidding document for both will be out soon.

However, the company is already in talks with leading shipping companies which use the Mundra port, India’s largest commercial port, to procure green hydrogen. In order to meet the greenhouse gas emissions targets set by the International Maritime Organisation, global shipping companies are shifting to greener fuels.

 Recently, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) announced a 50 per cent discount on charges to LNG-fuelled ships at Mundra port, said a statement by the company. This is part of APZEZ’s plan to become a green port and logistics company.

Group to invest $70 bn in new energy over next decade

Speaking on the side-lines of the UK's Global Investment Summit at the London Science Museum, Gautam Adani, chairman, Adani Enterprises, said over the next decade, the Adani portfolio companies in the energy and utility business will invest over $20 billion in renewable energy generation.

"The overall organic and inorganic investments across the green energy value chain will range between $50 billion and $70 billion," he said.