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JSPL stresses on alternate ways to attain gas in India

February 16: Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL) has stressed on the need for India to explore alternate ways of obtaining gas to help attain energy security, while showcasing its unique, state-of-the-art coal-to-gas plant at Angul, Odisha at the 6th international summit on gasification and its applications, GASIFICATION INDIA: 2015, at New Delhi.

Worldwide, gasification has reliably gained a good share in the past few decades, as there is a rise in chemical, energy, and natural gas demand all over the world. Gasification is a thermochemical process that is low on cost, high on efficiency, resulting in greenhouse savings.

The two-day international summit covers the entire field related to science, technology and policy of gasification of coal, biomass and other carbonaceous feedstock's, as well as applications to power generation, production of liquid fuels, and related topics. The scope of the summit is to estimate the global market for gasification by the end of 2020.

Addressing the delegates, Naveen Jindal, Chairman, JSPL, said, “India has sufficient reserves of coal in the country. We hope that the government encourages environment- friendly innovations like coal gasification that is a cost-effective and effluent-free technology used in the steel-making process. As a company, we are pioneering in bringing in such innovations to India so as to produce indigenously in line with the Make in India vision.”

According to the company’s MD and CEO, Ravi Uppal, “India has billions of tons of low-rank coal. Its gasification can help our country overcome the perennial gas shortage problem. Apart from saving precious foreign exchange for our country, this would create employment in the country, boosting the economy. However, there are significant technical challenges in the gasification of high ash Indian coal as it has ash content ranging from 40-50%. We at JSPL have accepted this challenge both for the company and the industry.”