Singareni forays into methanol production from carbon dioxide emitted from its power plant

Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) is pioneering methanol production from carbon dioxide emissions in thermal power plants.

HYDERABAD

The Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) is setting up a methanol producing unit on the premises of its 2x600 megawatt thermal power plant at Pegadapalli in Jaipur mandal of Mancherial district to make 180 kg of methanol every day from 500 kg of carbon dioxide generated in the process of coal firing in the power plant.

According to the officials of Singareni, they are planning it on an experimental basis in association with Coal India and a few private companies and if successful, SCCL would establish a large unit to make methanol. Gas emitted with burning of coal in the process of thermal power generation contains carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and hydrogen and by reacting with a catalyst at a specific temperature and pressure in a synthesis reactor, methanol and water are produced.

Chairman and Managing Director of the company N. Balaram stated that construction of the prototype plant has already commenced and work on it is likely to be completed by the year-end. It would be another diversification of SCCL into activity other than its core business of coal mining. Singareni would become the first firm in the country to make methanol from carbon dioxide generated in the thermal power plant.

The methanol unit would be launched immediately after completion of the work with the clearances from the State government. The CMD explained that the company’s thermal power plant has electrostatic precipitators (ESP) to prevent 99.9% carbon emissions from the plant joining the atmosphere and the methanol would be made from emission that would go into air after passing through ESP. The methanol unit would come up near the chimney of the power plant. He stated that civil works of the methanol units were already completed and installation of the machinery would be taken up this month. The methanol plant would have units for collecting carbon dioxide, hydrogen generation, compression unit and distillation unit. Some machinery has already reached the site, while the remaining would arrive by the month-end.

The methanol making unit is being set up in association with and financial assistance from the research unit of Coal India – Central Mine Planning & Design Institute Ltd (CMPDIL). The construction and operation of the unit were being handled by Bengaluru-based institution Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advances Scientific Research and its associate firm Breathe Applied Sciences Private Ltd.

Methanol is mostly used in the production of fertilizer, acrylic plastic, synthetic fibre, plywood, paints and others. Of the 120 million tonnes of methanol used in the country, about 80 million tonnes is imported.