On 08th January 2021 Kathmandu University (KU) and Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) signs an MOU to foster mutual interest in the field of fuel and energy sector development and contribution to increased cooperation between academic institutions and government corporations.

The MOU has been signed by Dr. Bahadur Nepali, Dean of School of Engineering, KU, and Er. Deepak Baral, Director, NOC.
The MOU is has established the foundations for collaboration in the following disciplines:

• Provide engineering and consulting services to update and match the standards at NOC to meet International practices.
• Industrial/Commercial applications of Digitalization
• Capacity development and knowledge transfer
• Technical, commercial, economic, and legal feasibility for exploration, production, and distribution of petroleum products and Alternative energy including hydrogen and other gas in Nepal
• Research and Pilot-scale demonstration for technology transfer and local adaptation for commercialization.

NOC is still known as a company that buys fuel from India and sells it in the Nepali market. With this MOU, the corporation has opened up the new possibility to investigate and invest in Green Hydrogen as the Alternative and Future fuel for Nepal.

The MoU between NOC and KU is important in the development of technology that can produce green hydrogen from electricity. There have been discussions of electricity going to be surplus soon in the future and the investment in the hydropower sector will be badly affected if the plans and preparations for its alternative use are not done timely.

After the agreement, KU will also provide the necessary engineering consultancy for relevant project activities currently being operated by the corporation.

Surprisingly the event has drawn attention from the larger and broader parts of the Media. The news of the MOU signing event has been covered by almost all major online media. I could find 21 of them listed below. I am sure I have missed quite many others. The response on Facebook trolls is overwhelming and immense. This is an indication that KU is leading its research and cooperation activities in the right direction. We have a feeling that the Nepalese Society is preparing to step forward towards Hydrogen Economy from Hydropower Energy.

The Green Hydrogen Lab at KU is committed to pushing forward the country towards the adoption of Hydrogen technologies in a safe and sustainable manner.

The next step would be to organize a workshop between KU and NOC to identify future directions. NOC has urged us to start to identify and build a network among national and international experts who can contribute to this process. A project proposal has been submitted to NOC by KU earlier on, “Technology Transfer and Local Adaptation for Developing NOC as a Hydrogen Fuel Producing and Distributing Company”.

List of Published News of the event (total 21):