American technology firm, Honeywell, has said it has ready-to-use catalyst-coated membranes for the production of Green Hydrogen in India. The company is presently in talks with an undisclosed list of manufacturers in India, CNBC-TV18 learns, to supply this chemistry technology for the electrolysis of green hydrogen.

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"We have been developing green hydrogen technology in our labs at Chicago and Gurugram, and we'd like to be the supplier of the chemistry technology to whoever manufactures hydrogen electrolysers," Gavin Towler, Corporate Chief Scientist (Sustainability Technology) at Honeywell, said in a chat with CNBC-TV18 in Chicago.

Towler said the company was in discussions with "several" Indian companies but nothing is public yet. The company said it has shipped samples of the catalyst-coated membranes to multiple companies around the world.

Honeywell's interest in being a supplier is significant in light of India's Green Hydrogen Mission. In August, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy set an emission limit of 2kg of carbon dioxide for every kilogram of hydrogen produced, for the latter to be classified as 'green'. This makes India one of the first countries to define what constitutes Green Hydrogen.

More recently, Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari warned of a 10 percent additional goods and services tax (GST) on diesel vehicles as a means of pushing consumers to embrace cleaner fuels and leave petrol and diesel vehicles behind. Gadkari later took to social media platform X, to clarify that there was no such formal proposal present.

"It is essential to clarify that there is no such proposal is currently under active consideration by the government," said the minister, "In line with our commitments to achieve Carbon Net Zero by 2070 and to reduce air pollution levels caused by hazardous fuels like diesel, as well as the rapid growth in automobile sales, it is imperative to actively embrace cleaner and greener alternative fuels.

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Part of this plan to embrace clean fuels is the National Green Hydrogen Mission, which aims to produce 5 million metric tonnes (MMT) of green hydrogen with a renewable energy capacity addition of 125 GW across the country.

To achieve these numbers, the Indian government envisions investments to the tune of Rs 8 lakh crore and the creation of 600,000 jobs. It expects the cumulative reduction in fossil fuel imports to lie in the range of Rs 1 lakh crore.

'$4 trillion global investment required annually to fight global warming'

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Towler believes more can be done at a global level to keep pace with global warming. For a start, present-day investments in renewable energy, he believes, must more than double, and continue for the next two decades.

"Every government feels the need to move faster, but we aren't moving fast enough," said Towler, "The world invested $1.5 trillion in sustainable technology last year; that needs to be more like $4 trillion, which needs to be sustained through 2050."

At present, the US technology major is working with Indian industrial giants like Reliance Industries, the Tata Group and Adani Group to help them adopt sustainable technology via clean fuels and carbon capture. The company has a presence in India at plants in Pune, and R&D centres in Bengaluru and Madurai.

Honeywell is focusing its sustainability technology development in the field of avionics, building technology, performance materials and safety and productivity solutions.

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First Published:Sept 13, 2023 1:45 PM IST