NEW DELHI, 18 October (H.S.): As part of National Green Hydrogen Mission, the Union Government

has sanctioned three pilot projects for use of Hydrogen in steel production.

Earlier the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy had issued guidelines for

Implementation of Pilot projects in Steel Sector under this Mission.

The objectives of the scheme were to identify advance

technologies for utilizing green hydrogen in steelmaking, through pilot

projects. These pilot projects can demonstrate safe and secure operations of

green hydrogen-based steel making processes, validating technical feasibility

and performance, evaluating their economic viability thereby leading to low-carbon

iron and steel production. Accordingly, the proposals were invited for three

components (i) Pilot project to produce DRI using 100 % Hydrogen using vertical

shaft, (ii) Use of Hydrogen in Blast Furnace to reduce coal/ coke consumption

and (iii) Injection of Hydrogen in vertical shaft based DRI making unit.

Based on the evaluations of the proposals received, the Ministry

of New and Renewable Energy has sanctioned total three pilot projects in the

steel sector, (a) Matrix Gas and Renewables Ltd (Consortium members: Gensol

Engineering Ltd, Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar, Metsol AB, Sweden)

with pilot plant capacity 50 ton-per-day (TPD), (b) Simplex Castings Ltd

(Consortium member: BSBK Pvt. Ltd., Ten Eight Investment, IIT Bhilai) with pilot

plant capacity 40 TPD and (c) Steel Authority of India Ltd (Ranchi) with

plant capacity 3200 TPD.

The total financial support made available will be Rs. 347 Crore

from the Government of India. These pilot projects are likely to be

commissioned in next 3 years, paving way to the scaleup of such technologies in

India.

The National Green Hydrogen Mission was launched on 04th January

2023 with an outlay of Rs. 19,744

crores up to FY 2029-30. It will contribute to India’s goal to become

Aatmanirbhar (self-reliant) through clean energy and serve as an inspiration

for the global Clean Energy Transition. The Mission will lead to significant

decarbonization of the economy, reduced dependence on fossil fuel imports, and

enable India to assume technology and market leadership in Green Hydrogen.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Nimish kumar