Coal Gasification Based Methanol Production Plant 

Coal Gasification Based Methanol Production Plant 

Part of: GS-III: Energy

In News: BHEL R&D centre at Hydrabad began working on Indian high ash coal gasification in 2016 with support from the NITI Aayog to produce 0.25 ton per day methanol. The project was supported by the Department of Science and Technology with a Rs 10 crore grant. With four years of hard work BHEL successfully demonstrated a facility to create 0.25 TPD Methanol from high ash Indian coal using a 1.2 TPD Fluidized bed gasifier. 

• India’s first demonstration plant of its kind, designed entirely in-house to work on high-ash Indian coal – BHEL R&D centre at Hydrabad
• The methanol purity of the crude methanol produced is between 98 and 99.5 percent. 
• This endeavor led to the formation of in-house design expertise in BHEL for designing greater capacity coal gasification facilities, which will provide necessary impetus to the vision of ‘Atam Nirbhar Bharat.’ This in-house capability will assist India’s Coal Gasification Mission and Coal to Hydrogen Production for Hydrogen Mission
• After achieving this feat BHEL is further developing in house some critical processes such as catalytic conversion of syngas to methanol.  

About Methanol

• Methanol is utilized as a motor fuel, to power ship engines, and to generate clean power all over the world. 
• Methanol is also used to generate di-methyl ether (DME), a liquid fuel that is very similar to diesel — existing diesel engines simply need to be minimally changed to use DME instead of diesel. 
• Methanol could be the most promising option for large-scale market penetration of a natural gas-based fuel for light-duty vehicles because of its low fuel cost and low additional cost relative to powering a vehicle with gasoline.
• Methanol, like ethanol but unlike hydrocarbon fuels, is water soluble. As a consequence, it is transported through diffusion and convection through the environment at much faster rate than hydrocarbons. In addition to fast migration, methanol bio-degrades much faster than hydrocarbons. Fast transport and degradation result in short lifetimes. Hydrocarbons, on the other hand, comprise many stable compounds, which include some, such as aromatics, that are highly toxic to bio-organisms and degrade slowly
• Promoted under the Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) initiative

The majority of worldwide methanol production is derived from natural gas, which is a relatively easy process. Since India doesn’t have much of the natural gas reserves, producing methanol from imported natural gas lead to outflow of foreign exchange and sometimes uneconomical due to excessive prices of natural gas. 

The next best option is to utilise India’s abundant coal. However, due to the high ash percentage of Indian coal, most internationally accessible technology will not be adequate for our demands.

News Source: PIB