BL reported that armed with a technology tie up with Envirotherm GmbH of Germany, Chennai based Shriram EPC Limited aims for a major play in the area of coal gasification. It begins its innings with a INR 35 crore order from Jindal Steel.

Mr T Shivaraman MD of Shriram EPC said Jindal Steel is putting up a INR 1,000 crore pellet plant at Barbil, Orissa and the coal gas plant is a part of the project. Shriram EPC is to provide the entire engineering services as well as the gasifier for unit. The gasifier will burn 43 tonne of coal an hour to produce 1,000 cubic meters of coal gas.

Mr Shivaraman said Shriram EPC expects that with the Jindal plant as a reference and with the technology tie up with Envirotherm, there will be more orders coming its way. The company is looking at orders in the coal belt in eastern India, especially in Jharkhand.

Mr Shivaraman added that India, like China, will go the coal gas way in the coming years, mainly because of the need to use the huge cache of coal under its soil in a manner that is environment friendly. Also, unlike in earlier years, ash disposal is no longer a problem. Ash, today, is a valuable commodity that goes into the manufacture of cement and for road under bedding.

The output of an IGCC plant is used to drive turbines to generate electricity. The product that comes out of a Shriram EPC-Envirotherm plant will not be suitable to produce electricity, but can replace industrial LPG or furnace oil. A coal gas plant at a coal mine can produce methane at USD 4 a million British Thermal Units, while commercial LPG will cost around USD 12 a million British Thermal Units.

Coal gas is methane produced by burning coal under controlled conditions. A coal gas plant is similar to the more popular IGCC, a technology for producing gas from coal. There are a few differences, essentially in terms of calorific values.

(Sourced from Business Line)