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INDIAN SCENARIO

In India, BHEL had been operating a coal based IGCC power plant at Tiruchirappalli for 6.2 MW
power since 1998. This was the second coal based IGCC plant in the world. The technology
was based on pressurized moving bed technology and successfully delivered 400,000 KWHr
energy [53]. However, the coal used was not high ash coal. Since then there have been plans
to set up more coal based IGCC units. India operates many coal based power plants, which
use air in the combustor. A good summary is available in the document prepared by TERI. It
appears that although India had started early in coal gasification with IGCC, neither chemical
production nor carbon sequestering was actively pursued, although India has spent about 10
million US$ for a zero emission project as observer member/partner with USA [54].

In summary, there is a huge potential for utilization of Indian coal for production of methanol/
DME and power. Technology for IGCC is under active consideration, but for carbon capture
and utilization of carbon dioxide we are at the starting point. We need to plug this gap before
we embark upon coal based power and methanol/DME units. Without carbon capture, the
environmental benefits of methanol as a fuel will not be realized. The cost is a major concern.

4.2 Availability of Feedstock for Production of Methanol

Natural Gas is the most preferred feedstock for methanol production. Due to the availability of
natural gas in the country most of methanol plants are not able to utilize the full production as
indicated in the previous section. The other resources are coal, pet coke, biomass or MSW and
off gases from refineries, steel plants etc. Although India has good reserve of coal, the quality
of coal is of concern.

Indian production of coal had been progressively increasing but the demand is also growing
hence the balance is met through imports. India had a total installed electricity capacity of
around 250 gigawatts. Around 60 per cent of this is coal-fired. Indian coal reserve is about
301.56 Billion tonnes as on 1.4.2014. Some typical observation on Indian Coal are as below:
• Currently Indian coal is only used for power generation

• Only one plant for fertilizer production –via syngas air Gasification
• Coal washing requires large amount of water
• The average ash content is more than 40% and due to presence of large amount of
silica and alumina, the ash fusion temperature is high.

4.2.1
INDIAN COAL AS FEEDSTOCK FOR METHANOL

There has been concern about cost of washing vs. transportation of unwashed coal. It is
preferred to locate the gasification plant near the coal mines, so that the unwashed coal could
be directly utilized. The main issue here is that the washing improves the efficiency of the
electricity generation and the overall cost of production is lower. However, with the increasing
problems of water usage and the difficulty in washing for several types of Indian coal, this may
be revisited. As such, technologies are available today to clean the syngas as well as there are
gasifiers which can handle even 50% of ash. Modern gasifiers operating at high temperature
and pressure can handle high ash coals but the carbon emission is higher than washed coal.
Therefore, the use of unwashed coal is not permitted to burn beyond 1000 Km of the mines or
in densely populated areas, due to higher carbon dioxide emission [88]. For use of unwashed
coal, the plant has to be located closer to the mines. It is to be noted that the gas produced by
UGC or from coal bed methane is most suitable for converting to methanol/DME.

60 Methanol and DME Production: Survey and Roadmap | 2017