Hygenco Green Energies has launched its third operational green hydrogen facility in India, supplying 200 tonnes of green hydrogen and oxygen annually to optical fibre manufacturer Sterlite Technologies Ltd. (STL) under a long-term offtake agreement.
Known as Project Photon Leap, the installation represents a niche but meaningful advance in hard-to-abate sectors, where hydrogen plays a critical role in high-temperature industrial processes.
Located in Maharashtra, the new plant will provide the clean gases via dedicated pipelines to STL’s glass preform facility, where both hydrogen and oxygen are used to generate the ultra-high temperatures required for producing ultra-pure optical glass. While the project is modest in scale compared to other global hydrogen ventures, it targets a specific and emissions-intensive use case—offering a replicable model for decarbonising specialty manufacturing.
According to Hygenco, the substitution of conventional fuels with green hydrogen and oxygen is expected to reduce the facility’s carbon footprint by approximately 30% annually. This estimate, while not independently verified, suggests an important emissions abatement lever in an industry not typically prioritised in hydrogen deployment strategies. The hydrogen will be generated through electrolysis powered by renewable energy, although Hygenco has not yet published detailed capacity factors or renewable input sources.
The facility continues Hygenco’s asset-ownership model, where the company builds, owns, and operates its hydrogen systems for offtakers. This BOO (Build-Own-Operate) approach is emerging as a favoured structure in India’s early-stage hydrogen economy, enabling industrial users to benefit from decarbonisation without taking on the capex burden or technology risk.
The company has set a 2030 target of deploying 10 GW of green hydrogen and ammonia capacity, placing it among the more aggressive players in the Indian hydrogen landscape. Its most ambitious project to date—a 1.1 million tonne-per-year green ammonia plant in Odisha—is being designed with export markets in mind, particularly Europe, where demand for low-carbon hydrogen derivatives is growing in anticipation of tightening carbon regulations and CBAM enforcement.
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