IIT-M and Hyundai’s innovation centre seeks to cut production cost of hydrogen fuel-OxBig News Network

The Hyundai HTWO Innovation Centre, a research and development hub, will seek to develop indigenous technologies to be able to produce and use hydrogen as a green fuel. Once fully functional in two years, the centre will be able to generate hydrogen from biomass and through electrolysis method to be used as green fuel for various uses such as transportation vehicles.

The centre is a result of a collaboration between Hyundai Motor India Limited (HMIL), the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M), and Guidance Tamil Nadu, the State government’s nodal agency for investment promotion. Coming up in an area of 65,000 sq.ft on the IIT-M Discovery Campus in Thaiyur, the innovation centre, being built at a cost of ₹180 crore, is said to be one of the first industry-institute-government collaborative ventures in the field of clean energy in the country. HMIL has pledged ₹100 crore for the project.

The design for the centre was unveiled on Tuesday by T.R.B. Rajaa, Minister for Industries, Investment Promotion, and Commerce. He said the venture would seek to reduce the cost of production of hydrogen fuel with the Tamil Nadu government’s intervention. He said the government would be able to ensure biomass availability from municipal waste and could tap into the tooling capacity available with the students of the Tamil Nadu Centre of Excellence for Advanced Manufacturing (TANCAM) and the Tamil Nadu Smart and Advanced Manufacturing Centre (TNSAM).

Mr. Rajaa said the State government was also in the process of setting up a hydrogen cluster in Thoothukudi, where hydrogen molecules would be produced and shipped out to Singapore through the V.O. Chidambaranar Port for use by Japanese shipping agencies. The port was being “enabled” for this operation, he added.

V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT-M, said the target for the centre should be to demonstrate in two to three years that a hydrogen-fuelled car would be able to drive from Chennai to Kanniyakumari with refuelling facilities along the way. The centre plans to collaborate with micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) to develop low-cost and efficient technology, and set up hydrogen refuelling plants in various parts of the State.

Mr. Kamakoti said the generation of hydrogen from biomass will come as a possible mode of income generation for farmers. At present, hydrogen fuel costs $5 per kg and could fuel a vehicle for 20 km to 25 km. The innovation centre seeks to bring the cost down to $2 per kg. The way forward, Mr. Kamakoti said, would be to set up decentralised hydrogen hubs at sites close to the source of renewable energy required to run the plants.

Unsoo Kim, Managing Director, HMIL, said the focus of the collaboration was to promote localisation of the entire value chain and build a robust and inclusive hydrogen economy, which supports India’s clean energy ambitions.

Ashish Lele, director, CSIR National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, Gopalakrishnan C.S., whole-time director and chief manufacturing officer, HMIL, Ashwin Mahalingam, dean (alumni and corporate relations), IIT-M, and Aravind Kumar Chandiran, principal project investigator and associate professor, chemical engineering, IIT-M, spoke.