Chennai, DHNS: Sembcorp Industries, the Singapore-based renewable energy major, on Wednesday broke the ground for its first state-of-the-art green ammonia plant in the port city of Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu to be built at a cost of Rs 36,200 crore.
The company has been allotted about 160 acres of land at the V O Chidambaranar Port in Thoothukudi, 620 km from here, for the project to generate 1,511 jobs. The plant, whose front-end engineering and design work has already commenced, will initially produce 200,000 metric tonnes of green ammonia annually for export to Japan.
Sembcorp on Tuesday signed a pact with Japan’s Kyushu Electric Power Company, Sojitz Corporation, and Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK) to export green ammonia produced through green hydrogen from the to-be-built plant in Thoothukudi to Japan to reduce the dependence on coal at thermal power plants in that country.
The foundation stone for the ambitious project was laid by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin via video conferencing from Chennai. Stalin also inaugurated 19 new projects and laid the foundation stone for 28 new projects worth Rs 70,000 crores across sectors for which MoUs were signed in the past three years.
“This project is another example of the close ties between India, Singapore, and Japan to make a mark on the global green hydrogen industry. We have assembled a set of credible partners, Kyushu, Sojitz, and NYK for this project,” said Vipul Tuli, Chief Executive Officer (South Asia), Sembcorp Industries.
With green ammonia emerging as a critical source to decarbonise the power supply mix, Japan aims to import 3 million tonnes of ammonia for fuel by 2030. Green ammonia produced through green hydrogen at the Thoothukudi plant will help reduce Kyushu’s dependence on coal thermal power plants owned by it.
NYK will oversee the maritime transportation of the green ammonia, to establish a robust supply chain from production in India to supply in Japan, particularly in the Kyushu region.
The groundbreaking ceremony comes just eight months after Sembcorp and the Tamil Nadu government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the project during the third edition of the Global Investors Meet.
The foundation stone laying ceremony also comes close on the heels of the state government projecting Thoothukudi and Tirunelveli as the hub for the renewable energy sector in Tamil Nadu. The development also comes at a time when Vietnamese electric vehicle (EV) maker VinFast is building an EV ecosystem in Thoothukudi to produce cars and batteries.