Chanda to get country’s 1st private syngas project

Nagpur: Among the big ticket investments cleared by the state’s cabinet sub-committee include what can be dubbed to be the country’s first coal gasification project of its kind in the private sector.
Made out of coal gasification process, it is one of the eco-friendly uses of fossil fuel as compared to its utilisation by burning. The company New Era Cleantech Solutions has Balasaheb Darade, former NASA associate, as its managing director.
Darade has eventually settled in Buldhana’s Lonar tehsil and had even contested zilla parishad elections.
The company plans an investment of Rs20,000 crore in the project, which would come up at Bhadravati in Chandrapur district. According to Darade, apart from being the first private sector syngas project, it would also be the biggest industrial project in Chandrapur creating 15,000 jobs.
Darade told TOI that the product mix makes it unique. The plant would be making syngas, hydrogen, ammonia, urea, methanol and DME. Dimethyl ether (DME) is an alternative to cooking gas.
Darade said the plan is also capture pollutants like CO2 and sulphur generated during the process, to be used eventually. Apart from syngas, there are also plans to make hydrogen at the plant. The gas is expected to have a major market if the country emerges as a hydrogen economy, or else it can be used for manufacturing ammonia, which ultimately goes into fertilizer making. There are plans to make ethanol and DME also, he said.
The project is expected to start in the coming three years. The government has already identified land for the plant.
The company estimates to consume 5 million tonne coal for making the gas and other products down the line. This comes to around 9% of WCL’s last year’s production. The coal would be sourced from the WCL, which can include new mines being started by the mining PSU, said Darade.
“Syngas is a natural gas and has it varied uses. The production can add to the country’s energy efficiency. The government has a target of creating a capacity to make 100 million tonne syngas annually,” said Darade.
Darade said he was part of the project for the last two years apart from taking part in related initiatives. The company’s directors are Ajay Agrawal of Subbalakshmi Group and angel investor Gopi Latpate. New Era has also tied up with global investors for funding the project.