In pursuance of the announcement made by the Finance Minister in the Budget speech on 1st Feb 2022 about “Four pilot projects for coal gasification and conversion of coal into chemicals required for the industry to be set up to evolve technical and financial viability”, the Ministry of Coal is organising a webinar on 4th March 2022, wherein experts from Industry, Academia, Research organisations and Engineering Consultants along with practitioners and State Government officers and other stakeholders will join policy makers to deliberate the way ahead for effectively implementing the Coal Gasification Mission of Ministry of Coal. About fifty experts from stakeholder organisations will actively participate and interact in the webinar in which Dr Anil Kumar Jain, Secretary, Ministry of Coal will be the moderator. The webinar aims at deliberating on the topics such as Ensuring availability of coal, Economics of operation / policy assistance, Marketing of gasification products, Investors perspective: Public and private sector, Development of indigenous technology for gasification and Coal to Blue hydrogen (Coal Gasification + CCUS)
India has total reserve of 307 Billion Tonnes of thermal coal and about 80% of coal produced is used in thermal power plants. Coal is a resource India is well endowed with and intends to use it for purposes other than energy generation in an environmentally sustainable manner. With global concerns on climate change and development of renewable energy, diversification of coal for its sustainable use has been identified as the future course for the country. Coal gasification is considered a cleaner option.
Gasification facilitates utilization of chemical properties of coal. Syn Gas produced from coal can be used to produce Gaseous Fuels such as Hydrogen (Blue coupled with CCUS), Substitute Natural Gas (SNG or Methane), Di-Methyl Ether (DME), Liquid Fuels such as Methanol, Ethanol, Synthetic diesel and Chemical like Methanol derivatives, Olefins, Propylene, Mono-Ethylene Glycol (MEG), nitrogenous fertilizers including Ammonia, DRI, Industrial Chemicals along with Power Generation. These products will help move towards self-sufficiency under Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan. In line with the above objective, Ministry of Coal has taken initiatives for coal gasification and it has prepared National Mission document to achieve 100 MT coal gasification by the year 2030. Policy incentivizing coal gasification provides for rebate in revenue share in coal block auction and also linkage for the same.
Presently, the most advanced stage of implementation is by JSPL. It is operating a gas-based DRI plant at Angul (Odisha) using Moving bed/ Fixed bed dry bottom technology gasifying domestic high ash coal whereas Talcher Fertilizer Limited (TFL) is also under construction with mixing of pet coke in high ash domestic thermal coal for urea production using Entrained Bed Technology. Coal India Limited (CIL) has also planned four projects for commercial scale production of methanol and ammonium nitrate. Tender has been floated for two projects for engagement of agency on BOO basis.
Through the webinar, Ministry of Coal seeks to get valuable inputs on ways to accelerate the pace and achieve the gasification agenda at the soonest possible.
