• The Union Cabinet approved an outlay of Rs 8,500 crore as financial assistance for promoting coal, lignite gasification projects.

• The government has also approved setting up of coal-to-SNG (Synthetic Natural Gas) project through a joint venture between Coal India and GAIL at an investment of Rs 13,052.81 crore and coal-to-ammonium nitrate project through a joint venture between CIL and BHEL for Rs 11,782.05 crore.

• The decision is a significant step as it helps reduce import of chemicals, which can be derived through coal gasification. 

• Financial assistance will be provided for coal gasification projects under three categories.

• For category I it is Rs 4,050 crore, followed by Rs 3,850 crore in category II and category III is Rs 600 crore.

India’s coal sector

• India is the second largest producer of coal in the world after China. 

• India has a total coal reserve of 344.02 billion tonnes.

• The country has seen a consistent increase in the demand for electricity over the years. Given that 72 per cent of the electricity in India is generated from coal, it becomes a very strategic sector for the nation’s development.

• Nearly 90 per cent of the coal reserves in India constitute non-coking coal or thermal coal which is primarily used for power generation and in industries such as cement and brick-kilns. 

• Whereas, approximately 10 per cent of the reserves are coking coal reserves which are majorly used in the steel production process. India imports a quarter of its coal requirements.

• In India, about 80 per cent of coal is used in thermal power plants. 

• With environmental concerns and development of renewable energy, diversification of coal for its sustainable use is inevitable. 

What is coal gasification?

• Gasification is a technological process that can convert any carbon-based raw material such as coal into fuel gas, also known as synthesis gas (syngas).

• Coal gasification is considered a cleaner option as compared to burning of coal and has diversified use of coal in other forms of energy.

• Gasification facilitates utilization of chemical properties of coal.

• Syngas produced from coal gasification can is usable in producing Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG), energy fuel (methanol & ethanol), ammonia for fertilizers and petro-chemicals.

• In the gasification process, sulphur present in the coal is converted to hydrogen sulphide (H2S) and minor amounts of carbonyl sulphide (COS).

• These sulphur compounds can be easily and economically removed from gas streams by a wide variety of commercially available processes (acid gas removal systems). 

• The separated acid gas is further processed to recover elemental sulphur.

• After the acid gas removal treatment, only few parts per million (ppm) of sulphur remains in the coal gas. 

• Nitrogen oxides (NOx) are not formed to any appreciable extent in the reducing atmosphere of coal gasification. The particulate content in the

fuel gas after gasification is negligible since the gas cleaning steps (hot cyclones, water scrubbing or hot gas cleaning) capture almost all the particulate.

• Except for hot gas clean up, other two systems are commercially established and practiced. 

• Most part of the wash water is recycled and the residual waste waters from gasification plants can be effectively treated. The coal gasification plants do not produce any scrubber sludge which needs careful and costly disposal.

• The fine ash generated in the processes using pulverized coal feed may be used for value added products like manufacturing of fly ash bricks.

• The major advantage of gasification is that coal is converted into a gaseous fuel which is easy to handle and is a clean form of energy. In the gaseous form, it enables the substitution of petroleum products and natural gas. The synthesis gas (syngas) has a wide range of applications. 

• The ministry of coal has taken initiatives for coal gasification and it has prepared a National Mission document to achieve 100 MT coal gasification by the year 2030.

Manorama Yearbook app is now available on Google Play Store and iOS App Store