Coal India will work with BHEL to develop indigenous coal gasification plant: CMD

• India should bank on reliable and affordable indigenous technology for coal gasification and carbon capture, said experts at a post-Budget webinar on coal gasification
• Coal Secretary Dr Anil Kumar Jain called for suitable business models that will allow both public sector and private sector to play a role in setting-up of coal gasification plants

New Delhi: Coal India Ltd (CIL) Chairman and Managing Director Pramod Agrawal said that the coal miner is ready to join hands with Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) for the development of indigenous coal gasification plant to produce Ammonium Nitrate. Agrawal made the statement while addressing a post-Budget webinar on coal gasification on Friday. The webinar was attended by over 100 experts who stressed on the fact that India should bank on reliable and affordable indigenous technology for coal gasification and carbon capture — two crucial ways to ensure clean utilisation of coal.

Earlier in the day, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the webinar on Energy for Sustainable Growth, he had said, "Four gasification projects will help in framing up technical and financial viability of coal gasification." Coal Gasification was one of the six topics which was deliberated in six concurrent sessions. 

Coal gasification: Top govt officials propose PPP model, PLI scheme

While addressing the webinar organised by the Ministry of Coal, Coal Secretary Dr Anil Kumar Jain called for suitable business models that will allow both public sector and private sector to play a role in setting-up of coal gasification plants. 

NITI Aayog Member Dr VK Saraswat stressed on setting up demonstration plants to scale up indigenous technology and the introduction of Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for setting up Coal Gasification Plants. He suggested rationalisation of pricing of coal for gasification on the parameters such as taxations, State Cess, transportation and handling charges and acceleration on the projects planned by Coal India Limited and subsidiaries, preferably through EPC approach for production of chemicals and fuels.

During the session, highlights of both the existing plant of JSPL and the plant under construction of TFL, were shared by VR Sharma, Managing Director, Jindal Steel and Power Limited and SN Yadav, Managing Director, Talcher Fertilizer Limited. Further, Yadav pointed out key enablers of coal gasification such as development of indigenous technology, formulation of policy for consistent quality and uninterrupted supply of coal and challenges faced by TFL.

Govt lists down 6 focus areas for coal gasification

VK Tiwari, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Coal highlighted six key takeaways from the webinar — availability of coal for gasification projects, development of indigenous gasification technology on commercial scale, development of indigenous technology for production of methanol from syngas, suitable policy provision for marketing of indigenous product derived from coal gasification, financial assistance to gasification projects at initial stage and taking up of all business models for setting up of projects.

The Additional Secretary said that by taking all these steps, coal gasification target of 100 MT of domestic coal by year 2030 will be achieved, creating to a new path of sustainable coal utilisation.

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