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4 INDIAN SCENARIO

he current consumption of methanol in India is primarily for the manufacture of chemicals
such as acetic acid. Usage as fuel or fuel additives is not prevalent. Currently, India
Timports a large amount of methanol.

4.1 Current Methanol Production Capacity and Economics

Current methanol consumption in India is 1.5 MTPA. The demand is growing at about 10%
and is expected to continue to be met through imports. The current production and imports are
shown in Table 12.

TABLE 12
Methanol Production in India [147]

Actual production, Consumption
Year Installed Capacity
In 1000 Ton In 1000 Ton
2012-13 660 254.9 1469.22
2013-14 660 307.26 1534.78
2014-15 660 209.83 1801.99

Methanol production in India, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Statistics at a Glance 2015 (1), from Ministry of Chemicals &
Petrochemicals, Govt. of India
It can be seen that India has almost double production capacity than what is produced. The
higher demand is met by imports, which are steadily increasing. The reason for the low capacity
utilization is non availability of gas and globally lower price of methanol. The import price
prevailing during January 2015 was between Rs.16 to 17 per Kg. [148] The two major end-
use segments for methanol are chemical and energy. In the chemical segment, methanol is
used for production of Formaldehyde, Acetic acid, Di-Methyl Terephthalate (DMT) and a range
of solvents. The consumption of methanol in the energy segment is as blending component
for petrol and Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (MTBE), Tertiary Amyl Methyl Ether (TAME) and
Dimethyl Ether (DME). In India, the usage pattern for methanol has remained unchanged over
a period of time, with formaldehyde sector accounting for the bulk of the consumption, while
usage in the energy segment is not picking up.
Considering the diverse uses of methanol and its potential for use in the energy sector the
industry estimates that current demand growth of 10% would be sustained with relatively
higher growth in the energy segment. It is estimated that by end of XII Five Year Plan period,
th
demand for methanol would reach 2.5 MT, thus providing substantial opportunities for domestic

58 Methanol and DME Production: Survey and Roadmap | 2017