India's first gas-to-ethanol plant is to be set-up in Chandrapur by SAIL.

Mukesh Kumar, the Director of Steel Research & Technology Mission of India (SRTMI) said that the plan to set up a gas-to-ethanol plant is in accordance with the plan of the central government to reduce India’s dependency on the import of the crude oil, and addressing the issue of the carbon emission.

India's first gas-to-ethanol plant is to be set-up in Chandrapur by SAIL.

On25th Jan, 2021,it was reported that Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) will set up a gas-to-ethanol plant in Chandrapur in Maharashtra. Central government will also provide help to SAIL in this set-up.

The gas-to-ethanol plant will be India’s first. SAIL has a ferro alloy plant in Chandrapur in Maharashtra and the gas-to-ethanol plant will be set-up in the same facility to use the hot gases produced from ferro alloy plant as a feed for the gas-to-ethanol plant.

 

Mukesh Kumar, the Director of Steel Research & Technology Mission of India (SRTMI) said that the plan to set up a gas-to-ethanol plant is in accordance with the plan of the central government to reduce India’s dependency on the import of the crude oil, and addressing the issue of the carbon emission.

 

SRTMI is a collaborative research platform formed jointly by steel ministry and the players in the domestic steel market. SRTMI facilitates research and development (R&D) in the iron and steel sector. It strengths the association between industry players, research bodies, and academics.

SRTMI is helping SAIL in setting up the plant in Chandrapur.

 

Mukesh Kumar added to his previous comment and said, “This plant will be first of its type in India and will be fourth such plant in steel sector in the world. Right now, two such plants are operating in China and one is operating in Belgium at ArcelorMittal's plant. All these plants use bio-ethanol fuel generation technology.”

 

Further explaining about the technology, Director of the SRTMI, Mukesh Kumar said, “It captures hot gases, like carbon-di-oxide, carbon-mono-oxide, and hydrogen, produced from the ferro alloy plant’s submerged arc furnace. These gases are then used as a feed-stock for the ethanol plant. Ethanol is produced by fermentation of these gases.”

 

SAIL’s Chandrapur plant is the only public sector plant in India involved in the production of manganese based ferro alloys. This plant has an installed capacity of 1,00,000 tonnes per year (TPY) ferro manganese.

 

When asked about the timeline of the project, Mukesh Kumar said that the government has asked SAIL to submit a detailed project report, and SRTMI will be helping SAIL in the project.

 

SAIL, under the Ministry of Steel, is India’s largest steel producer. SAIL has an installed capacity of 21 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of steel.