Experts confident of Vizag becoming 1st hydrogen city

The holding of the Indo-US workshop on hydrogen and global decarbonisation, co-hosted by the Indian Institute of Petroleum and Energy (IIPE), Visakhapatnam, and Stony Brook University, USA on Tuesday marked a significant milestone in international academic and industrial collaboration.

Vizag is poised to become India’s first hydrogen city, exemplifying sustainable energy solutions, the speakers said. Director of IIPE Prof Shalivahan expressed gratitude to all dignitaries and participants, with special thanks to NTPC for their support in the hydrogen generation project.

The unique feature of the course is breakout sessions which will be a group activity and the participants strategise every day topic to come up with the top three priorities.

Prof Devinder Mahajan from Stony Brook University, the keynote speaker, emphasised the importance of goal-oriented research and commended the NTPC-IIPE collaboration for its innovative hydrogen production initiatives. Among others, SK Sinha, Project Director, NTPC Simhadri, discussed the use of seawater for condenser cooling and the installation of a 25 MWfloating solar panel, forecasting NTPC to become a 130 GW company by 2032.

U.K. Bhattacharya, Director of NTPC Projects, highlighted the recent commissioning of a one TPD hydrogen plant and the potential of chemical and electrochemical engineering in addressing global energy challenges. The workshop underscored the crucial role of industry-academia partnerships in advancing hydrogen technology and achieving global energy targets. Registrar Ramphal Dwivedi has congratulated the organisers and participants for making it a grand success.