Energy and environment solutions provider Thermax Ltd. on Friday said it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Australia-based green energy and technology company Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) to explore green hydrogen projects in India.

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The two companies will explore opportunities to develop fully integrated green hydrogen projects for commercial and industrial customers in India.

As per the MoU, Thermax and FFI will also look at potential collaborations in the development of new manufacturing facilities to support green energy projects in India.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Ashish Bhandari, MD & CEO of the company said, “The MoU focuses on three broad aspects of the partnership, the first one of which is around developing hydrogen-based projects for the industrial sector and this is steel, beyond that into fertilizers, refineries, a lot of projects that are of industrial application use. Second is the ability to do EPC not just for projects in India, but globally as well. and third should demand take off in India and there is a need for local manufacturing of electrolyzers, this is also something that this partnership will actively look at.”

The companies will also look for opportunities for the export of electrolysers and subsystems.

Thermax mentioned that the Performance Linked Incentive (PLI scheme), under India’s National Green Hydrogen Mission, could be leveraged for setting up any new manufacturing capacity.

The government recently approved the National Green Hydrogen Mission to increase domestic production of green hydrogen to 5 MMT per annum by 2030 and reduce fossil fuel imports by over Rs 1 lakh crore, which is a significant boost.

FFI’s parent Fortescue Metals Group has vast experience in managing large-scale projects in the iron ore business which provides the green energy arm with a strong platform to expand into manufacturing projects in green hydrogen.

Bhandari said, “The idea of partnering with FFI and Fortescue specifically is to energize the hydrogen sector in India and whichever markets we together want to operate in. Simply put FFI and Fortescue has possibly one of the world's biggest mandates from their board and their charismatic leadership to make hydrogen happen and to get the world closer towards net zero.”

FFI is in the process of constructing a world-class Green Energy Manufacturing Centre in Gladstone, Queensland.

Thermax, a leading conglomerate in the energy and environment space, provides integrated solutions in heating, cooling, power generation, water treatment and recycling, air pollution control, and chemicals with a focus on ensuring clean air, clean energy, and clean water.

Shares of Thermax ended 0.31 percent higher at Rs 2,188 on Friday.

(Edited by : Rukmani Krishna)

First Published:Mar 10, 2023 4:54 PM IST