Thermax, Fortescue Future collaborates to enter green hydrogen market

Fortescue Future Industries (FFI), an Australian green energy and green technology company, and Thermax Limited, a leading provider of energy and environment solutions, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore green hydrogen projects, including new manufacturing facilities in India.

Thermax and FFI want to evaluate possibilities to collaboratively create fully integrated green hydrogen projects for commercial and industrial customers in India. This is in accordance with the MoU.

Industrial-scale generation of green hydrogen would be a significant step in decarbonising India’s challenging industries, such as steel, fertilisers, and refineries. The parties’ prospective cooperation in the creation of new manufacturing facilities to support green energy initiatives in India is also contemplated by the Agreement between Thermax and FFI.

The National Green Hydrogen Mission of India’s Performance-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme could be used to set up any new manufacturing capacity. Electrolysers and subsystems may be used for export worldwide in addition to satisfying domestic regulations.

FFI, Fortescue’s green energy division, has a solid foundation to grow into manufacturing projects in green hydrogen because of Fortescue Metals Group’s experience handling large-scale projects in its iron ore sector.

In Gladstone, Queensland, FFI is building a Green Energy Manufacturing Center that will lead the globe. A manufacturing facility for electrolysers is being built as part of the project’s first phase, with an initial output capacity of 2 GW per year as the target. Thermax will contribute its extensive expertise in supply chain and EPC to the partnership.

Stating his opinions over the partnership, Ashish Bhandari, MD and CEO, Thermax, said, “The collaboration with Fortescue Future Industries is perfectly timed to leverage the massive potential of the Indian green energy market, that presents a multitude of opportunities, backed by favourable policies and incentives. Furthermore, the recent approval of the National Green Hydrogen Mission by India’s Union Cabinet, which aims to increase domestic production of green hydrogen to 5 MMT per annum by 2030 and reduce fossil fuel imports by over ₹ 1 lakh crore, is a significant boost. With all these factors working in our favor, we are confident that our association will be successful.”