During a presentation of the Indian Oil Corporation's proposed 54,000 crore investments, including the 35,580-crore greenfield refinery project, in Tamil Nadu, a senior official of the company said that Indian Oil Corporation is considering establishing green hydrogen generation units in Tamil Nadu and Kerala and the PSU oil major is in talks with the State governments.

“We have discussed this with the government of Tamil Nadu. We are having a meeting with the state government officials next week. The fuel has already been tested and if the state government provides land and power we will be able to take it forward,” V C Asokan, Executive Director & State Head, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, said.

He said IOC has been doing extensive research in the area of green hydrogen, which is seen as the fuel of the future. Its R&D centre already has a hydrogen dispensing station that is up and running and the company has already taken 15 fuel cell electric buses for undertaking pilots.

Explaining the cost for the proposed unit in Tamil Nadu, Asokan said the investment would be made depending on the requirement of the users. For example, if we spend about ₹50 crore in a unit, we will be able to meet the requirements of only 10-12 fuel cell buses,” he added.