The project will be taken up by the appraisal committee of the environment ministry later this month
Country's maiden fertiliser project based on coal converted into gas has been kicked off after some delay with Talcher Fertiliser initiating the process to set up the plant on a turnkey basis following zeroing on a technology developed by Shell Global. This is a joint venture between GAIL, Coal India, Fertiliser Corp and Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers.
The project would be taken up by the appraisal committee of the environment ministry later this month following which the turnkey contractor for the project would be selected by July, sources said.
The successful execution of the project would open up the road to an alternative use of coal at a time when its demand from conventional areas like thermal power plants has stagnated.
"After some delays for several reasons, there is some progress. Efforts are on to get a contractor on the lumpsum turnkey basis. The project would be considered by the expert appraisal committee on Thursday. The technology for coal gasification has been selected to be provided by Shell and the contractor would be finalised next month," sources told DNA Money.
The coal gas-based ammonia and urea fertiliser project set to come up at the closed unit of Fertiliser Corp at Talcher in Orissa was planned to create fertiliser capacity at a time when no new green field urea complex has come up in the country since 1995 or a brownfield expansion since 1998.
In order to utilise the unused plant lying at Talcher and using an innovative cost-effective fuel based on coal sourced from the same region, the government conceived the project consisting of 2,200 tonnes a day ammonia and 3,850 tonnes a day of neem coated urea capacity at a cost of around Rs 8,000 crore.
A multi-partner joint venture was formed in November 2015 headed by GAIL and consisting of other public sector corporations like Coal India, Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers and Fertilizer Corp of India.
Since then, the project couldn't make much headway mainly because of technical issues like what kind of coal and technology to be used for converting coal to gas, which hasn't been used in the country so far.
While the earlier idea was to use Talcher coal only, with a high ash content of 40%-47%, it was later found fit to use a blend of high ash coal as well as petcoke to the extent of 25% of the mix, which will generate Ammonia Synthesis Gas.
Then in February after deliberating on several technological options, Talcher Fertilisers decided on the process belonging to Shell Global Solutions, the petroleum giant which has been working on this technology since the early 70s.
A check on the monopoly of foreign traders, ease in availability of fertilisers amongst farmers particularly in the eastern region and better utilisation of local energy resource are some of the reasons cited by the government to pursue the project.
EFFICIENT ENERGY
- The project will be taken up by the appraisal committee of the environment ministry later this month
- The successful execution of the project would open up the road to an alternative use of coal
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