India Hydrogen Alliance (IH2A), a business organization with headquarters in Delhi, and the Keralan government announced that they are jointly assessing a proposal for the construction of the Kochi green hydrogen (KGH2) hub with a potential capital expenditure of $575 million.

According to the official press release, the plant will have a 150 MW electrolyser, storage facility, and infrastructure hub, a capacity of 60 tonnes per day (TPD), with the potential to reach gigawatt-scale capacity.

Following a meeting for consultation between the government, business, and funding organizations, the plan was shared by IH2A and the Kerala government. “We are actively collaborating with industry and investors to replicate the hydrogen valleys in Europe, in Kerala. The proposed hydrogen hub is significant for its scale and its focus on building hydrogen infrastructure,” said K A Abraham, chief principal secretary to the Chief Minister, Government of Kerala. As per the press release, the project, which aims to develop green hydrogen production, storage, transmission, and end-use infrastructure within a 50-km cluster in Kochi, is based on the Hydrogen Valley projects in the EU.

The plan will concentrate on the transportation use-case in the first phase in order to power fleets of 60 buses with retrofitted hydrogen internal combustion engines and to construct the necessary infrastructure.

The hub's capacity is anticipated to be expanded in the second phase in response to industrial demand for green hydrogen from refineries, fertilizer, and chemical plants.

“The hub plan is a blueprint of how India can build large-scale, commercial green hydrogen infrastructure. Starting with the right scale of project development is important. It indicates India’s seriousness in building a domestic green hydrogen economy and its role in shaping the emerging global green hydrogen market,” said Jill Evanko, chief executive and president, Chart Industries, and founding member of IH2A.

The hub scale, investments, and offtake green hydrogen pricing will not be finalized until the conclusion of a techno-commercial study, according to the press release.

“It is a first of its kind in the country, in its current form and scale. Kerala intends to lead on project development and show the path forward on green hydrogen commercialisation in India. We are actively collaborating with industry to achieve this,” said K R Jyothilal, principal secretary - power and general administration, Government of Kerala.

According to the press release, the Kochi consultation meeting included in-principle industry support for the development of the hub, the construction of hydrogen infrastructure, and an in-principle intent to offtake from large industrial plants in the proposed hub.

See also:
Government identifies 10 states for green hydrogen manufacturing
Power ministry to mandate renewable power generation obligation