Va Tech Wabag, a leading global player in the water technology space, is exploring strategic partnership opportunities in the green hydrogen segment. The Chennai-headquartered company believes that its in-house capabilities and experience will come in handy as it plans to emerge as a water partner to companies focusing on the production of green hydrogen.
Though green hydrogen — which has the potential to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions — is not economically viable yet, a lot of companies are investing in the segment as they expect costs to come down gradually.
“In the next 5 years or so, green hydrogen will become economically viable and it will see the success the solar power segment witnessed. 20 years ago, everyone said solar wouldn’t work, but it is now successfully competing with thermal,” Rajiv Mittal, Chairman and Managing Director of Va Tech Wabag Ltd told businessline.
Water is a raw material for hydrogen production. If the water is not clean, it gives scales to the electrodes and the efficiency of the electrodes will come down. That’s where Wabag sees its role in providing safe and clean water for hydrogen production. “We can produce cleaner water than others,” claims Mittal.
For the production of green hydrogen, three important things need to be put together — green energy, electrodes and water.
As a water partner, Wabag could build, operate and maintain the water treatment plant to provide the green hydrogen companies with a reliable source of clean water. “There are a number of companies in touch with Wabag to rope us as a water partner,” he added.
Meanwhile, Wabag is also working on putting up a pilot green hydrogen unit. For this, the company plans to get the electrodes from top electrode makers, and work with leading solar panel suppliers to build a green power supply for the project. “By next year or so, we will be in a position to demonstrate the pilot project of green hydrogen production,” he added.
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Wabag is also exploring opportunities in the semiconductor and bio-CNG areas. After a huge supply chain issue in the semiconductor sector post-Covid, several countries including the developed world, are investing in their own facilities to produce chips. As semiconductor manufacturing requires a high level of extra-pure water, Wabag is keen to be part of this. A few years ago, Wabag did a project in the Middle-East to supply pure water to one of the semiconductor manufacturing facilities.
In the Bio-CNG space, the company has already been building these plants over the past two decades. The company has been converting biogas to power. Now, it is planning to move to a higher value chain, which is Bio-CNG.