Linde, a global industrial gases and engineering company, has announced plans to invest $1 billion in India over the next 3-5 years. Currently, Linde's gases business in India holds a modest 3% market share, and the company aims to increase this to 5% within the five-year timeframe. The investment will primarily be executed by Linde's project engineering group, leveraging their strong technical capabilities.

Regarding Linde's role in India's green hydrogen economy, the company expresses satisfaction with the government's incentives, as they are expected to drive activity and foster innovation and technological advancements. Linde envisions leading developments in this space and anticipates sharing more details in the coming days. While the focus in India currently revolves around green hydrogen or electrolysis hydrogen, Linde disagrees with the view that green hydrogen can be obtained for $1 per kilogram.

Drawing from their experience in the industry, Linde explains that electrolysis technology is relatively crude, requiring significant power input (54 kW) to generate one kilogram of hydrogen. Process optimisation offers limited scope, and the primary avenue for improvement lies in scaling up the size of the electrolyser. Consequently, the cost of green hydrogen remains high. Linde acknowledges their ongoing work in proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysis and other electrolysis technologies but foresees a technology roadmap that will take at least five to seven years to achieve scalable, cost-effective, safe, and reliable green hydrogen solutions.