CIL incorporates subsidiary for gasification projects
Times of India | 29 May 2024
Kolkata: Maharatna coal behemoth Coal India Ltd incorporated a subsidiary called Bharat Coal Gasification & Chemicals Limited (BCGCL) for various coal gasification projects. CIL holds 51% and Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) 49% equity in BCGCL.
CIL will engage in coal gasification to produce syn-gas, ammonia and nitric acid as intermediate products and ammonium nitrate as the end-product.The business has got clearance from NITI Aayog and DIPAM. Earlier this year, CIL and BHEL signed a joint venture agreement to set up an ammonium nitrate plant by surface coal gasification (SCG) technology. To come up in the Lakhanpur area of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited in Odisha, the plant is expected to produce 2,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate per day initially.
The annual production is slated at 6.6 lakh tonnes, which would need 1.3 million tonnes (mts) of coal. The coal will be supplied by CIL. BHEL would bring to the table indigenously developed pressurized fluidized bed gasification (PFBG) technology for this purpose. Synergy and partnership of the two corporate giants is a big step towards National Coal Gasification Mission, which facilitates utilization of chemical properties of coal. Ammonium nitrate is a major ingredient in manufacturing of bulk explosives, which CIL uses in its OC mining operations, a major source of its coal production.The upcoming plant, as backward integration, would also help in securing raw material, reducing import dependency of ammonium nitrate and promoting Atmanirbhar mission.tnn