Que: What are the key environmental impacts associated with diesel gensets, and how can gas gensets offer a sustainable long-term alternative?

Ans: A diesel genset emits sulphur dioxide, a harmful acid capable of causing acid rain. This is absent in natural gas gensets, making them a more breathable and sustainable alternative. It offers a promising step towards a cleaner environment.

The two other concerns in these gensets are Particulate matter (PM) and CO2. However, the CO2 emission levels in a gas genset are reduced, and the PM emission levels are nearly negligible compared to those in a diesel genset. This is mainly because diesel, as a chemical compound, has higher impurities and complex hydrocarbons, whereas gas has much simpler chemistry and is cleaner.

The consequential emissions from these impurities in diesel fuel are at such levels that even after treatment, the emissions from a diesel engine can only be restricted to a certain extent and can certainly not be eliminated.

Que: Could you explain the scientific principles underlying gas gensets?

Ans: A gas genset is equipped with a spark-ignited internal combustion engine. The combustion process occurs at the core of a gas genset, where a gaseous fuel reacts with oxygen to generate energy. The gaseous fuel is primarily natural gas, such as methane. The engine works on the thermodynamic cycles of Otto or Miller, which is also typically followed by a petrol engine in a car. The choices allow a gas genset to manage the trade-off between electrical and thermal efficiencies. This helps optimise a gas genset to suit the site's environmental conditions, like tropical, cold climates, etc., and variable load patterns.

The thermal waste from exhaust and gas engine jacket water amounts to significant energy that is wasted if not utilised. So, a combined heat, power and chilling solution can be implemented to improve total efficiency. One can recover this heat to make steam, hot water, chilled water, thermic fluid or even use it directly for drying.

Que: How did Green Power International transition from being an EPC company to becoming a global energy solutions provider?

Ans: At Green Power International, we provide end-to-end turnkey EPC solutions to our customers, which were earlier centred around gas-based power generation only. For example, if a customer requires a heat recovery solution, then we would not just limit ourselves to providing a VAM or a boiler at the exhaust of the genset as per the optimal sizing; we would instead study the entire plant operation philosophy to find all possible sources where heat is being unutilised and consider all that with our heat recovery solution.

To migrate this approach to the energy sector, we aligned our vision with the global outlook on energy transition. With our presence in Africa and Asia, we leveraged our strength as an international player with a strong EPC core to bridge the crucial gap between the customer and technology providers in the energy sector at a global level. Only a few turnkey solutions providers have good technical execution and risk-taking capability. So, we have tried to position ourselves in that bracket and strategically expanded our national and international ties to offer turnkey energy solutions in a hybrid model beyond just power generation. This would include combinations of alternate fuel generation, decarbonisation solutions coupled with renewable energy, utilisation of biowaste to make bio-CNG, etc.

Que: What is Green Power International approach to decarbonization, and can you provide insights into innovative projects such as the Hydrogen generation project?

Ans: Green Power International (GPI) adopts a multifaceted approach to decarbonization, focusing on reducing carbon emissions by deploying clean energy technologies, improving energy efficiency, supporting sustainable practices and raising awareness. By leveraging these strategies, we aim to significantly reduce carbon emissions and support the transition to a low-carbon, sustainable future.

We are doing our part to contribute to the country’s Net Zero goal. With our Carbon Capture project already commissioned in Vindhyachal, we have already captured more than 3000 tonnes of CO2 from the flue gases emanating from the country's largest thermal power station.

Our second project centred around decarbonisation is a hydrogen project, which will be commissioned soon in June 2024. It is located at NTPC’s R&D campus in Greater Noida. We use Solid Oxide Electrolytic Cell (SOEC) Technology to make green hydrogen, which is much more efficient than the traditional Alkaline technology. In SOEC, apart from electricity, we also use high-temperature steam as an energy input to the electrolyser to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen. This reduces the total electricity consumption, making the process more electrically efficient. NTPC intends to inject this hydrogen into their existing hydrogen grid. Though the concept of using hydrogen as a fuel is not new and has been around for ages, this project will be the first of its kind to be implemented in India because of the technology.

Que: How does Green Power International contribute to advancing sustainability and fostering a cleaner, greener future?

Ans: Our commitment to what we offer and how we operate is reflected in our name. We are dedicated to becoming progressively cleaner by providing greener solutions and engaging only in relevant opportunities.

Over the past four years, we have significantly expanded our offerings in cleaner energy solutions in India and internationally. By entering the compressed biogas (CBG) sector, we have aligned with the government’s SATAT scheme, which heavily subsidises CBG projects. We plan to invest as developers in the long term to support this initiative. Additionally, we will continue to work on upcoming carbon capture, hydrogen, and alternative fuel projects in both the private and public sectors.

Que: What are Green Power International plans for achieving robust growth in India, particularly in sectors like healthcare, textiles, and infrastructure, with a focus on sustainability and energy efficiency?

Ans: We have planned multiple streams to grow our business in India.

In our gas engine business, we have committed to make gas gensets more affordable to consumers by increasing our assembly operations in India. We now offer gensets up to a rating of 1000 kW built in India. We have also invested in setting up new world-class testing and assembling facilities to match our customers’ demands and delivering quality power solutions promptly. With these investments, we have reduced the lead time of the imported gas gensets from 24 weeks to only 12 weeks. These gensets will also be offered in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia via our foreign subsidiaries in Nigeria and Thailand.

We intend to leverage our ties in the healthcare and textile sectors to provide feasible gas genset solutions. One of the leading medical device manufacturers in the country, who’s been using our gensets with heat recovery continuously for the past eight years, put confidence in us for a new project where they intend to use the gas genset as a backup in place of diesel gensets. With the emergence of gas gensets as a proven standby option, we aim to continue our growth in India.
We have increased our focus on the compressed biogas segment by forming strategic associations in 2024. We intend to use efficient membrane technology for our projects, which helps our plants achieve a better methane content, up to 99% than other traditional technologies available in the market.

In the infra space, we already have a foot in through our JV, which has executed over 2000 total kilometres of Railway electrification projects in five years since 2017. The execution is very different from a gas genset/biogas-based EPC, where the site keeps moving. There is a big push from the Railways to adopt cleaner energy sources to drive the trains. They have put effort into converting trains to make them run on hydrogen through an IC engine or a fuel cell. This aligns with our vision of contributing towards sustainable energy solutions through our projects. We intend to leverage this opportunity by making bids for relevant projects.