Visakhapatnam: The Indian Institute of Petroleum and Energy (IIPE) in Visakhapatnam, in collaboration with NTPC Limited, is executing India’s first desalination-based hydrogen project.A plant with a capacity of 1 tonne per day (TPD) is currently being installed at a cost of approximately ₹35 crore on the premises of NTPC Simhadri. NTPC, which is actively pursuing various green hydrogen projects, has sanctioned this project for IIPE. In 2023, the Andhra Pradesh State Investment Board approved NTPC’s proposal to establish an energy park to produce green hydrogen, green ammonia, and green methanol at Pudimadaka in the Anakapalli district. The public sector major will invest around ₹1.1 lakh crore in these projects in two phases.According to IIPE director Prof Shalivahan, the desalination-based hydrogen project offers several environmental benefits compared to conventional hydrogen production methods. Prof Shalivahan explained how the Institute has got the project and execution process.Dr Somnath Ghosh, the principal investigator of the project from IIPE, said that NTPC Simhadri has a desalination plant that produces distilled water by desalinating seawater.”Our project leverages the distilled water produced through the desalination plant to generate hydrogen through the electrolysis process. Our generation capacity will be one tonne per day. For one tonne of hydrogen generation, nearly 10 tonnes of water are required. To produce this desalinated water, 300 tonnes of seawater are needed. From that, we use 10 to 12 tonnes daily to produce one tonne of hydrogen, which we will be stored at the NTPC’s facility,” explained Ghosh.”While the project order was sanctioned in December 2023, work commenced in January 2024. Plant installation should be completed within a year, making the plant operational by February 2025. The project cannot be classified as completely green since the electricity used for electrolysis will come from the power plant rather than renewable sources.”The benefits are manifold. First, we are using seawater to produce hydrogen. In conventional hydrogen production, significant power is needed to prepare demineralised water. Instead, we use the waste heat from the power plant’s flue gas temperature to convert seawater into distilled water, effectively turning waste energy into a valuable product. Moreover, the traditional steam reforming method of hydrogen generation, while efficient, produces a significant amount of carbon dioxide and other pollutants. Our method is carbon neutral,” added Ghosh.
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