For energy-intensive industries, decarbonisation will ultimately come down to economics, reliability and scale. ENERGDIVE sat with Anshu Sharma, Vice President – Petrochemical Operations and Maintenance, HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd (HMEL), to discuss why electrification offers a near-term opportunity, what is holding back low-carbon technologies, and how policy and digitalisation can accelerate adoption.
Q: India is pursuing multiple decarbonisation pathways—from hydrogen and biofuels to carbon capture, sustainable chemicals and electrification. Which pathway do you believe will create the biggest industrial transformation over the next decade, and why?
A: I would look at it the other way around—which is the quickest way from that point of view? In the oil industry, we consume a lot of energy, so electrification is one of the quickest ways for us to move into this field. Considering that, until a decade ago, most of our refineries produced their own electricity, and none of them could anticipate being connected to the grid.
Everybody, every refinery, had its own captive power plant, which in turn meant that we were emitting a lot of emissions because fossil fuel was being used to generate that electricity. But now, as things are progressing, let me share with you that when we built our petrochemical complex about four to six years ago, we took a decision that the grids had become more stable and we were able to get electricity on a consistent basis. So, we switched over to the grid, and that itself reduced a good amount of our carbon footprint for us. And then it is very easy.
Now, as a good amount of renewable energy is being used to generate that electricity, electrification can give us a big push in this direction straight away. So, that becomes the easiest and the fastest way for us because it is a much more proven aspect. So, that is how I look at it for the big energy guzzlers like refineries and petrochemicals.
Q: Many low-carbon technologies have demonstrated technical feasibility, but commercial scale remains elusive. What is the single biggest obstacle preventing large-scale adoption today?
A: The single, large-scale hurdle is scalability. From that point of view, technology has to become reliable and economical. Refineries or plants work 24/7, seven days a week, 365 days a year, and sometimes run for years without a shutdown. So, any technology that we adopt at the plant scale and take to an industrial scale has to be reliable. At the same time, it has to create economic value. Every technology requires capital expenditure, operating expenditure, and energy, so every investment is evaluated from an economic point of view.
"Technology has to become reliable and economical. Refineries or plants work 24/7, seven days a week, 365 days a year, and sometimes run for years without a shutdown"
We should also be able to deploy the technology at various locations. There should be an infrastructure around it; the vendors and trained manpower should be available, and the necessary infrastructure should be in place. If all these aspects are available for a technology, including one that has been demonstrated at the pilot scale, then we can scale it up and have the industry adopt it much faster. So, these aspects have to be taken into consideration before we move towards the adoption of any new technology.
Q: Technology alone does not create markets. What policy, investment or demand-side intervention is most critical for building viable markets for low-carbon products and solutions?
A: That is a beautiful question. We need a lot of support in this regard as operators. Collaboration among stakeholders is required to make these things viable. Policymakers have to provide the right incentives so that, from an economic point of view, we are able to adopt these technologies. The necessary infrastructure also needs to be developed. So, the policies have to be developed in a way that incentivises people to start adopting these technologies.
These policy interventions by the government are important, whether it is for Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), circular polymers, or carbon capture. Resource sharing also has to be enabled. From the circular polymer point of view, for example, waste management will require municipalities and producers to come together, and some incentives will need to be provided to them as well. These aspects have to be addressed from a policy perspective. Once that framework is in place, the movement towards adoption can become much faster.
So, how do we make that happen? We need to create an ecosystem in which companies are incentivised to invest. That is why policy interventions by the government, whether through grants or other policy initiatives, are necessary so that industries can flourish while moving towards Net Zero.
Q: What breakthrough whether in science, engineering, digital technology, manufacturing or business model do you think could create most significant impact to accelerate the transition to a Net Zero economies?
A: I think digitisation is something that will take us forward very quickly, as our industry generates a lot of data. Digital initiatives will help us bring greater efficiency into the system, and we will be able to achieve energy savings by using digital solutions and AI solutions together. We can use the huge amount of data that our industry generates, analyse it, and identify opportunities to improve energy efficiency and operational efficiency. This, in turn, can help us reduce our carbon footprint and energy consumption.
This is a low-hanging fruit where we can achieve immediate gains, particularly in reducing carbon emissions and energy consumption. So, the push towards digitisation is happening in a big way, and if it is taken up, it can be an immediate low-hanging-fruit opportunity for both the industry and, on an overall societal basis.
