New Delhi, Mar 4 (PTI) A suitable business model will ensure both public and private sectors’ participation in setting up of coal gasification plants in the country, a senior government official said on Friday.
Addressing a webinar organised by the coal ministry, Coal Secretary Anil Kumar Jain stressed on a suitable business model so that not only public sector but private sector also takes role in setting up of coal gasification plants.
NITI Aayog member V K Saraswat, who was also one of the speakers at the webinar, emphasised on setting up of demonstration plants to scale up indigenous technology and introduction of a PLI (production-linked incentive) scheme for setting up coal gasification plants.
Saraswat also suggested rationalisation of pricing of coal for gasification on the parameters such as taxation, state cess, transportation and handling charges and acceleration on the projects planned by Coal India Limited and subsidiaries preferably through EPC approach for production of chemicals and fuels, the coal ministry said in a statement.
“Four gasification projects will help in framing up technical and financial viability of coal gasification,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said while inaugurating the webinar on Energy for Sustainable Growth here.
Coal gasification was one of the six topics that were deliberated in six concurrent sessions. This was the ninth webinar in the series of post-budget webinars addressed by the prime minister.
During the session, highlights of both the existing plant of JSPL and an under-construction plant of TFL were shared by V R Sharma, Managing Director, Jindal Steel and Power Ltd and S N Yadav, Managing Director, Talcher Fertilizer Ltd (TFL).
Further, Yadav pointed out key enablers of coal gasification such as development of indigenous technology, formulation of policy for consistent quality and uninterrupted supply of coal and challenges face by TFL.
The session was attended by more than 100 experts. Further, R & D of Thermax plant and BHEL plant were shared. CIL Chairman also expressed his readiness to join hands with BHEL in the development of indigenous coal gasification plants to produce ammonium nitrate.
V K Tiwari, Additional Secretary, Coal, highlighted six key takeaways which were availability of coal for gasification projects, development of indigenous gasification technology on 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.
Tiwari said that with all these measures, India’s coal gasification target of 100 million tonnes (MT) by 2030 will be achieved, creating a new path of sustainable coal utilisation. PTI SID HVA MR MR
