India's first green hydrogen refueling station is about to open

NTPC Limited (formerly National Thermal Power Corporation of India), India's state-owned power producer, is commissioning the construction of a green hydrogen fuel station. The station, which will be the first of its kind in India, will be located in Ladakh and is scheduled to be operational from next month.

Five hydrogen buses in the area will be supplied with hydrogen refilling from the station. NTPC Chairman and Managing director Deep. Singh said the Green hydrogen fuel project will produce 80 kilograms of 99.97 percent pure hydrogen per day. The hydrogen will be compressed, stored and distributed. The goal is to supply five hydrogen fuel cell buses in the region.

"Our hydrogen bus is already there and the bus will run on hydrogen, making it a fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV)," Singh said. This green hydrogen will be produced locally by solar power."

Singh explained that the hydrogen fuel project will "prove to be a very useful pilot project" and plans to make the pilot project operational within a month. Initially, the project was scheduled to start at an earlier time, but time was wasted due to heavy rains and damaged road infrastructure in the region.

The commissioning of green refueling stations is one of many hydrogen targets in India. For the future development of hydrogen fuel, the Indian government has introduced the National Hydrogen Policy. Singh said hydrogen is the fuel of the future, and green hydrogen in particular has the potential to become a major fuel in the next decade, and the Indian Energy Ministry is "taking a pioneering step in this direction."

According to Singh, three years ago, NTPC realized that hydrogen "would be a very significant business opportunity for transformation and NTPC."

NTPC has opened the first pilot green hydrogen fueling station in its own township, where green hydrogen is regularly produced using renewable energy from floating solar power plants, which are injected into the piped gas network being used in the township.

In addition to the Ladakh Green refueling station project, NTPC is also working on another "very ambitious" hydrogen fuel pilot project. Located in Vindhyachal, the project will produce 10 tons of green methanol per day.

According to Singh, the project is in the late stages of commissioning and will most likely be operational by the end of this year.