Context

• Recently Union Minister of Coal and Mines Shri G. Kishan Reddy in a written reply in Rajya Sabha gave information about Coal Gasification and steps taken by the government to promote the same.

About Coal Gasification

• It is a process in which coal is partially oxidised with air, oxygen, steam or carbon dioxide to form a fuel gas. 
• This gas is then used instead of piped natural gas , methane and others for deriving energy.
• India has a reserve of 307 Billion tonnes of thermal coal and about 80% of coal produced is used in thermal power plants. 
• With environmental concerns and the development of renewable energy, diversification of coal for its sustainable use is inevitable.

Benefits of Coal Gasification

• It is considered as a cleaner option compared to the burning of coal and it facilitates utilization of the chemical properties of coal.
• It produces SynGas that is usable in producing Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG), energy fuel (methanol & ethanol), ammonia for fertilizers and petro-chemicals. 
• These products will help move towards self-sufficiency under Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan. 
• Steel companies typically use coking coal in their manufacturing process.
• Most of the coking coal is imported and is expensive. To cut costs, plants can use syngas, which comes from coal gasification plants in the place of coking coal.

Steps by Government

• The Government has approved investment by Coal India Limited (CIL) in joint ventures of Coal India Limited - Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (CIL-BHEL) and Coal India Limited - Gas Authority of India Limited (CIL-GAIL) for undertaking coal gasification projects. Both JV companies have now been established.
• Setting up of National Coal Gasification Mission
  • In order to create awareness among all stakeholders and to prepare an implementable road map with specific responsibilities, the Ministry of Coal has decided to set up the National Coal Gasification Mission. The Mission is created with an aim to take up following objectives which are required for the vision of achieving 100 MT coal gasification by 2030.
  • In 2022, a new sub-sector, "Production of Syngas leading to coal gasification," was created under the Non-Regulated Sector (NRS) linkage auctions policy to support coal gasification initiative.
  • A 50% rebate in the revenue share for coal used in gasification has been introduced in commercial coal block auctions, provided that at least 10% of the total coal production is used for gasification purposes.
  • NITI Aayog is presently exploring a roadmap and suitable technology options for surface coal gasification in the Indian context. In this perspective, a Technical Committee on Surface Coal Gasification has been constituted by (S&T), NITI AAYOG.

Concerns

• According to a recent assessment, coal gasification actually produces more carbon dioxide than a conventional coal-powered thermal power plant.
• The coal gasifiers using steel plants have higher greenhouse gas emissions than many of their counterparts. 
  • Their emissions range from 2.8-3.1 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of steel manufacture while the sector average emissions is only 2.5.
• Coal gasification plants are costlier than conventional power plants. Since, coal is the main feed for gasification, it, in no way helps in India’s decarbonisation goals.
• International Studies :
  • A recent study by Princeton University in the United States found that using synthetic natural gas for residential cooking and heating, for electricity generation, or for industrial heat generation, results in 10, 40 and 70 per cent more CO2 emissions than directly burning coal that provides the same amount of energy in each sector.
  • According to a study by Duke University in the US, the syngas process converts a relatively high-quality energy source (coal) to a lower quality state (gas) and consumes a lot of energy in doing so.
  • Thus, the efficiency of conversion is also low. 

Way Forward

• Coal gasification projects will need a dedicated infrastructure to be able to get them on the ground. 
• Availability of basic facilities such as land, water and feedstock, which is coal, is extremely important for these projects to get kick-started.
• The National Coal Gasification Mission’s objective to gasify 100 MT of coal will definitely require collaboration amongst the Government at various levels – Central, State and Local.
• The Government would need to take some major and path breaking policy decisions to create a technologically and economically feasible environment to push coal gasification in India.
• There have been numerous research efforts going on in different universities, laboratories, and PSU’s sporadically on the coal gasification process. 
• There is an urgent need to consolidate all of them and bring them under one umbrella to avoid reinventing the wheel and have better collaboration.