Green Hydrogen from MSW & Agri-Waste: NTPC unveils new Oxy Gasification Technology

The NTPC R&D wing NETRA has announced that it embarks to set up green hydrogen production plant using Plasma Oxy Gasification of MSW/Agri-Waste technology. NTPC said that upon set-up, it shall be a unique plant globally, wherein plasma assisted ‘oxy gasification’ of MSW-RDF/Agri-Waste shall be carried to produce ‘very high quality syn-gas’, from which high purity hydrogen ( over 99.9%) shall be separated using a novel configuration of ‘gas membrane’ and ‘pressure swing adsorption’.

NTPC said that this demonstration plant will produce about 1 Tonne per day green hydrogen by gasifying about 25 Tonne per day MSW/Agri-Waste.

Besides ‘Carbon-Mono-Oxide’ separated from ‘Hydrogen Recovery System’ shall be used to produce electricity using a low calorie gas engine.

NTPC mentioned that other than electrolysis, which is a highly energy intensive process (55-60 kWh/kg H2), Gasification & Reformation of MSW/Agri-Waste is the only pathways to produce green hydrogen.

This cutting-edge technology is in line with NETRA’s commitment to undertake research projects and demonstrate technologies for achieving Energy Transition goals and NTPC’s commitment for adopting ‘Circular Economy’ models.

“This opens a new avenue for NTPC Green Energy Limited (NGEL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of NTPC in the domain of green hydrogen,” said the official statement of the company.

Recently, NTPC has also partnered with the Indian Army to establish a Solar Hydrogen-based Microgrid at Chushul, Ladakh, that will operate independently, using hydrogen as an energy storage medium to supply 200kW of power round-the-clock throughout the year to our soldiers.

NTPC wants to achieve 60GW of renewable energy capacity by 2032 and becoming a major player in green hydrogen technology and energy storage domain. The company is pursuing several initiatives toward decarbonisation, including hydrogen blending, carbon capture, electric buses, and smart NTPC townships.