First Hydrogen plant of GAIL inaugurated in Vijaipur, MP
Energy
5 min read
The government of India-owned GAIL(India) Limited’s first green hydrogen plant has become operational at Vijaipur in Madhya Pradesh. This marks the entry of India’s largest natural gas transmission and distribution company in the green fuel business.
The plant was jointly inaugurated by Pankaj Jain, Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, and Sandeep Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director of GAIL.
10 MW Green Hydrogen plant of GAIL
The first green hydrogen plant of GAIL at Vijaipur uses a 10 MW proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyser which has been imported from Canada.
The plant will use solar energy to split the water and produce green hydrogen. It will produce about 4.3 tonnes of green hydrogen daily, with a purity of about 99.999 per cent by volume. For this purpose, the company is setting up around 20 MW Solar power plants at Vijaipur to meet the green power requirement for the 10 MW PEM Electrolyzer.
GAIL will, at present, use the hydrogen produced for its own purposes. It will be used as a fuel, along with natural gas, for running various equipment at the Vijaipur plant.
In future, the company plans to sell the hydrogen to retail customers transported through high-pressure cascades.
The GAIL effort is part of the National Hydrogen Mission, which aims to develop a green hydrogen production capacity of at least 5 MMT (Million Metric Tonnes) annually in the country by 2030.
Green Hydrogen
It refers to the breaking down of the water molecule into hydrogen and oxygen using renewable energy sources. Renewable energy means energy that can be used again and again, such as solar power, hydropower, wind energy, etc. It contains no carbon, which is responsible for global warming.
City Gas Distribution of GAIL
On an experimental basis, GAIL is blending hydrogen with natural gas in Indore. The piped natural gas is being supplied to the households in the Indore city of Madhya Pradesh. At present, 5 percent hydrogen is being blended with natural gas as the current rules allow only 5 per cent blending of hydrogen with natural gas.
To increase the blending ratio of hydrogen, GAIL is conducting joint studies with Engineers India Limited and IIT Kanpur..
GAIL (India) Limited
GAIL (India) Limited was set up by the government of India in 1984 under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
The company was initially created to construct, manage and operate the Hazira(Gujarat), Vijaipur(Madhya Pradesh) and Jagdishpur (Uttar Pradesh) natural gas pipelines.
The 1800 km long Hazira, Vijaipur and Jagdishpur gas pipeline is the world’s largest gas pipeline.
It is also in the business of providing piped natural gas to households in the cities.
Headquarters: New Delhi
Chairman Cum Managing Director (CMD): Sandeep Kumar Gupta
