Hydrogen focus for Nuberg
Noida-based Nuberg EPC wants to expand its presence in India's emerging hydrogen economy after successfully executing a hydrogen dispensing project for IndianOil.
Nuberg Group managing director Anil Tyagi tells this report his company is in discussions with domestic companies to "develop an alkaline electrolyser from scratch" to generate hydrogen from water electrolysis. "Electrolysers make up between 60% to 70% of the cost of hydrogen generation," said Tyagi.
Tyagi said Nuberg successfully commissioned India's first hydrogen fuel dispensing station for IndianOil at Vadodara in October 2022, capable of discharging 1.5 tonnes/day of hydrogen. "This station has set the ball rolling for the hydrogen economy in India," he said.
Tyagi adds Nuberg has patented technology for hydrogen peroxide production and has set up the world's largest number of hydrogen peroxide EPC projects. "We have an R&D centre in Sweden and will use these skills to develop electrolysers for hydrogen production."
Nuberg is also interested in NTPC's upcoming 'pilot' project to blend hydrogen with piped gas at its Kawas township in Surat, said Tyagi. NTPC has yet to issue a tender for the project, in which BGR Energy Systems and Sopan O&M will likely bid.
In September 2022, Nuberg received an LoA from IndianOil to set up a 400 tonnes/day sulphur recovery unit for Rs548cr ($78m) within 28 months. Nuberg's price was 33% lower than the next bidder Tecnimont, which bid Rs727cr ($103m), leading some to doubt if Nuberg would make any money.
But Tyagi insists Nuberg bid correctly. "We have already started work on this project," he says.
"Our in-house engineering and manufacturing expertise allows us to pass on lower costs to customers." Nuberg is also executing an EPC project to produce 10-tonnes/day of ethanol from paddy residue for IndianOil at Panipat.
"We are on track to commission this project within 18 months of the (December 2021) LoA."