Honeywell India to focus on battery storage, GH2, open to acquisitions in energy transition says CEO

Honeywell is open to acquisitions in India's energy transition technology sector, its president for India operations, Ashish Modi, told an interview. The US company has recently restructured operations into three segments: automation, aviation and energy transition. Battery storage and green hydrogen will be key areas of focus for the energy transition business, Modi said.

"We are always open to inorganic opportunities that bolster our strategy," Modi said, pointing out that energy transition has ample opportunities for inorganic growth and acquisitions of newer technologies.

"I think, energy transition is most obvious one (for acquisitions) as there are too many moving parts, and not one player can solve the issue or the equation. So, you need more help," Livemint reports Modi as saying.

Within the energy transition space, Honeywell is focussing on battery management systems (BMS) and a green hydrogen ecosystem.

"Our participation in battery is through a couple of places. One is we call BESS, so we don't exactly manufacture batteries. But we would put together grid scale battery storage system. In which you take the battery, you put the control system around it, you set up the safety system around it. You build the software so that it interacts with the grid. You put the whole thing together." The company also offers technologies for battery safety.

Honeywell is also involved in manufacturing aerosol sensors, which help in early detection of smoke and thermal runaway in batteries. These find application in electric vehicles. "EV is definitely growing and we sell a lot of sensors for EVs," Modi said.

Honeywell also produces catalyst-coated membranes for electrolyzers using proton exchange membrane technology, to acter to green hydrogen sector.

However, Modi pointed out that the demand for green hydrogen is still picking up. "We work on green hydrogen, which is getting a big push from the government. There's policy that came through the national green hydrogen mission. In green hydrogen we are seeing progress. Lot of projects have been announced. People are starting the plants, but haven't started procuring big time for it. They are still in the planning design phase," he said.

Modi also spoke about Honeywell's presence in carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) space. He said the sector has not gained momentum in India due to low demand. "The [absence of] demand seen in India is because it's very costly. Unless there is some sort of incentive or a disincentive, either by way of carbon tax, or a carbon incentive, there will not be the required demand for CCUS," he said.