Reliance Industries, other energy majors form hydrogen coalition

Led by domestic energy giant Reliance Industries, many global energy and industrial players on Tuesday came together to form a new energy transition coalition, called the India H2 Alliance (IH2A), to help commercialise hydrogen technologies in their bid to build net-zero carbon energy pathways in the country.

The alliance will work together to build the hydrogen economy and supply-chain here and also help develop blue and green hydrogen production and storage apart from building hydrogen-use industrial clusters and transport use-cases with hydrogen-powered fuel cells, a statement from the alliance said.

However, the statement did not name other founding members in the coalition. The alliance will focus on industrial clusters, specifically steel, refineries, fertilisers, cement, ports and logistics as well as heavy-duty transport use-cases and help establish standards for storing and transporting hydrogen in pressurized and liquefied form, the statement added.

To achieve the objectives, the alliance will work with the government on five areas: to develop a national hydrogen policy and roadmap 2021-30; to create a national H2 taskforce and mission in a public-private partnership format; to identify nationally large H2 demonstration-stage projects; too help create a national India H2 fund; and to create hydrogen-linked capacity covering hydrogen production, storage and distribution, industrial use-cases, transport use-cases and standards, the alliance said.

This alliance seeks to bring in best-in-class hydrogen technology, equipment and know-how to create a hydrogen supply chain in the country. By prioritizing national hydrogen demonstration projects, innovations to further reduce the cost of hydrogen will become prominent, locally.

Anurag Pandey, R&D team lead at Reliance Industries said, "We need to identify and execute large-scale hydrogen demonstration projects if we want to be part of the global hydrogen supply chain. Beyond R&D pilots, we need a 'hydrogen-valley' style national initiatives across a region like a high-traffic industrial freight corridor, with multiple use-cases and the alliance will take the lead in this."

The alliance will have a panel of hydrogen experts and a secretariat to support member companies.

On the India alliance launch, Jillian Evanko, of Chart Industries, which is founding-member of the global alliance, said proactive private-public collaboration is the key to creating a hydrogen economy in the country.

The alliance will bring in best-in-class hydrogen technology, equipment and know-how to create a hydrogen supply chain here so that it helps reduce the cost of hydrogen.

The alliance is an industry coalition of global and domestic companies committed to the creation of a hydrogen value-chain and economy.