India Targets 100 Million Ton Domestic Coal Gasification By 2030, Experts Urge To Scale Up Indigenous Gasification Technology

Intending to multiply Coal Gasification in India, the Ministry of Coal on Friday (4 March) organised a session with participation from bureaucrats, policymakers, industrialists, and over 100 experts from the sector.

This session is part of a webinar on Energy for Sustainable Growth which is the ninth webinar in the series of post-budget webinars.

The session deliberated upon the steps needed to achieve the coal gasification target of 100 MT of domestic coal by the year 2030 which will create a new path of sustainable coal utilisation.

Coal gasification is a process that converts carbonaceous materials, such as coal or biomass, into carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Coal gasification as a power-generation technology is gaining popularity as it is seen as a relatively sustainable process.

Dr Anil Kumar Jain, Secretary, Coal addressed the webinar and stressed the need for a suitable business model so that not only the public sector but also the private sector takes a role in setting-up coal gasification plants.

Dr VK Saraswat, member NITI Aayog, stressed setting up demonstration plants to scale up indigenous technology and introduction of PLI scheme for setting up Coal Gasification Plants.

Saraswat 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 the Coal India Limited and subsidiaries preferably through EPC approach for the production of chemicals and fuels.

VK Tiwari, Additional Secretary, Coal highlighted six key takeaways from the session. They are Availability of Coal for Gasification Projects, Development of Indigenous Gasification technology on a 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.