India's Essar Group said on Thursday it has formed a joint venture with the United Kingdom's Progressive Energy to invest 1 billion pounds ($1.34 billion) in building a hydrogen manufacturing unit at its Essar Stanlow refinery complex.
The joint venture, Vertex Hydrogen, will produce 1 gigawatt (GW) of hydrogen per year from two units from 2026, Essar said in a statement.
Essar, which owns 90% of the venture, said companies such as Tata Chemicals, Encirc, InterGen, Solvay, Ingevity, Novelis, Glass Futures and Saica Paper have already expressed interest in procuring hydrogen from Vertex.
The British government is targeting installation of 5 gigawatts (GW) of low-carbon hydrogen facilities by 2030 to reduce the share of natural gas in its energy mix.
Industry and policy-makers are increasingly looking to hydrogen to lower the environmental impact of sectors that have been the hardest to decarbonise and reduce the use of gas, but the investment required and the technical challenges are high.
The UK aims to replace up to a fifth of natural gas with "green" hydrogen, and use "blue" hydrogen, produced from natural gas and steam. Unlike green hydrogen, blue hydrogen is not emissions-free, but the carbon emissions are captured, stored and used in other applications.
($1 = 0.7447 pounds)
(Reporting by Sudarshan Varadhan; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Dear Reader,
Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.
We, however, have a request.
As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.
Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard.
Digital Editor
RECOMMENDED FOR YOU