India’s coal to gas plan aims to reduce the country’s reliance upon imported fuel. The overall global pollution effect of the decision is not yet clear but scientists say gasification does result in lower emissions than burning coal. So its use will need to be environmentaly balanced with the cost of importing fuel
India’s cabinet on Wednesday approved plans to provide incentives worth 85 billion rupees ($1.02 billion) for projects to convert coal into gas, the coal and mines minister said, as it seeks to reduce its reliance on imported fuel.
The financial assistance by the government will include 40.5 billion rupees for Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), 38.5 billion rupees for private sector and government PSUs and 6 billion rupees for indigenous technology and small-scale product based gasification plants.
India aims to gasify 100 million tonnes of coal by 2030.
The announcement will surprise any one who understood from news reports in 2021 that the country faced a shortage of coal when it was reported that 80% of India’s 135 coal-powered plants had less than 8 days of supplies left — more than half of those had stocks worth two days or fewer. Coal is used to generate around 70% of the country’s electricity and many observers have been forecasting India would be forced to reduce its reliance on coal.
“There is absolutely no dearth of coal in this country,” said Pralhad Joshi, the Union Minister of Coal and Mines, following the government announcement this week.
Coal gasification is the process of producing syngas-containing carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, natural gas, and hydrogen from coal. This method of generating hydrogen, classified as brown/black, places the largest strain on the environment. The main use of syngas is to produce power by combustion.
Gasification-based processes for power production characteristically result in much lower emissions of pollutants compared to conventional coal combustion.
The Indian cabinet also approved two coal gasification plants, including a 130.5 billion rupees joint venture between Coal India Limited and GAIL and a 117.8 billion rupees joint venture between Coal India Limited and Bharat Heavy Electricals.
Gasification-based processes for power production characteristically result in much lower emissions of pollutants compared to conventional coal combustion.
This can be traced to the fundamental difference between gasification and combustion: in combustion, air and fuel are mixed, combusted and then exhausted at near atmospheric pressure, while in gasification oxygen is normally supplied to the gasifiers and just enough fuel is combusted to provide the heat to gasify the rest. Since air contains a large amount of nitrogen along with trace amounts of other gases which are not necessary in the combustion reaction, combustion gases are much less dense than syngas produced from the same fuel.
Pollutants in the combustion exhaust are therefore at much lower concentrations than the syngas, making them difficult to remove. Moreover, gasification is usually operated at high pressure (compared to combustion at near ambient).
