BENGALURU: A green hydrogen energy plant will be set up in the Hakki Pikki Colony (HPC) located on the periphery of Bannerghatta National Park (BNP), by Alliance University.
Dr Mukul Saxena, Director, COE in Public Policy, Sustainability and ESG Research, Alliance University, told TNIE that a project proposal to generate and supply hydrogen energy to HPC on a pilot basis was submitted to the Union and State governments last week for approval. The Rs 25-crore pilot project will need permission from the Karnataka forest department.
Based on the outcome of this project, a hydrogen valley will be set up on the outskirts of Bengaluru on the lines of those coming up in Pune, Kochi and Amaravati. These are part of efforts to generate green hydrogen energy to meet the Union government’s target of 5million tonnes of green hydrogen energy by 2030.
Alliance University adopted HPC eight years ago under its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) scheme. Explaining the project, Saxena said that during the first 18 months, research will be done on breaking down hydrogen molecules from available lake and rain water through electrolysis. Around 20-30 litres of water will be used to generate 1kg of hydrogen.
The extracted oxygen will be sent to healthcare units and ammonia will be used in the fertilizer industry. Solar power will be used to run the plant.
He was speaking while announcing a two-day national workshop on Hydrogen Fuel Technologies and Future Trends by Alliance University and IISc, on September 19 and 20.
Yogesh Kumar, Professor, School of Science, Alliance University, said Bengaluru is the ideal place to set up a hydrogen valley -- an area where hydrogen energy is generated, stored and supplied to other sectors for services like mobility, industry and power generation. “Bengaluru has the talent pool for technological innovations. The HPC project is a small initiative and the valley will be a mega Rs 150-200 crore project,” he added.
