NTPC Limited, India’s largest integrated power generating company, has floated a global Expression of Interest (EoI) to set up a pilot project on hydrogen blending with natural gas in City Gas Distribution (CGD) Network in India.
The EoI follows the recent tenders floated by NTPC REL for green hydrogen fuelling station at Leh and NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Limited (NVVN) for procurement of Fuel Cell Buses the company said in a statement on Saturday.
A dedicated 1.25 MW solar plant is also being set up at Leh by NTPC REL to power the hydrogen fuelling station.
"This pilot on hydrogen blending with natural gas will be the first of its kind in India and would explore the viability of decarbonising India’s natural gas grid. NTPC with its ambition of playing a key role in India’s transition to hydrogen economy would later take this up at a commercial scale across India," the company said. The successful execution of the pilot will also demonstrate the decarbonisation objective along with import substitution aim under the government’s 'AatmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan’, it further said.
NTPC Limited is also keenly exploring the production of green ammonia to decarbonise the fertilizer industry and possibly fulfil the government’s upcoming mandate of using a certain percentage of green hydrogen in fertilizer and refinery sector, it added.