As West Asia war threatens gas supply, remembering a gas grid India never built

The ongoing warfare successful West Asia has plunged the satellite into a heavy vigor crisis. In India, the availability of home fuel, LPG, has been deed owed by the disruption successful supplies from the Persian Gulf. The planetary vigor situation is reminiscent of the Oil Shock of 1973 erstwhile members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) chopped lipid accumulation and slashed exports to protestation the U.S.’s enactment for Israel successful the Yom Kippur War. India responded by exploring alternate sources of energy, offshore oilfields successful Bombay High, and by experimenting with caller technologies.

One technological enactment that recovered a 2nd beingness this mode was ember gasification.

The thought of utilizing gasified ember to conscionable immoderate of India’s substance needs archetypal emerged successful 1955 erstwhile Syed Husain Zaheer, manager of the Regional Research Laboratory Hyderabad (RRLH) — present the CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) — and aboriginal director-general of CSIR, submitted a program to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru for a cross-country nationalist state grid. The program envisaged the usage of substance state produced from gasifying of ember and its proviso done pipelines for home and concern use. Zaheer believed substance state of precocious calorific worth could beryllium produced by wholly gasifying non-caking fuels specified arsenic shale coal, lignite, and bituminous coal, each recovered successful India.

‘Town Gas Supply Scheme’

The exertion progressive gasifying ember utilizing precocious unit to signifier hydrocarbons and utilizing oxygen to support a precocious thermal efficiency. It started with converting the sulphur contiguous successful the ember to hydrogen sulphide (H₂S) and tiny amounts of carbonyl sulphide (COS). Sulphur compounds are past removed from the state watercourse and separated acerb state is further processed to retrieve elemental sulphur.

The state was further cleaned utilizing h2o scrubbing to region immoderate remaining particulate matter.

In the 1940s, ember gasification was utilized astatine a commercialized standard to supply municipality state for thoroughfare lighting successful Europe and the U.S. But the concept’s techno-economic feasibility had yet to beryllium established for Indian coal.

To commencement with, Zaheer projected a “Town Gas Supply Scheme” for Hyderabad based connected gasifying the ember recovered successful the Singareni collieries and piping it to the city. If a gasification works was established astatine Kothagudem, state could beryllium supplied not lone to Hyderabad but besides to respective towns on the 290-km-long route, per the plan. Based connected surveys of substance consumption, colonisation and request projections, household income, and substance request trends, Zaheer projected a unit gasification works of 7.5 cardinal cubic feet capacity, and suggested the state pipeline could beryllium laid on the railway way to facilitate casual attraction and inspections.

Tough going

To show the technology’s feasibility, aviator studies were needed, which successful crook required funding. Zaheer’s thought did not find immoderate takers successful the Central authorities oregon the CSIR. On the vigor front, the argumentation absorption astatine the clip was connected uncovering petroleum reserves and the improvement of atomic energy, too harnessing hydroelectric powerfulness from ample dams.

So successful 1961, Zaheer urged Nehru to marque a argumentation determination to found respective plants for manufacturing municipality state based connected ember gasification successful prime ember belts and linking them done a countrywide grid. Nehru liked the program and observed that it was “a modern and much economical method, and it volition bring tremendous alleviation to the railways”. But the Ministry of Steel, Mines and Fuel pointed to the “infeasibility of the program for transporting state implicit agelong distances”.  The Planning Commission, the Coal Council, and the CSIR arsenic good remained acold to the connection and were reluctant to money a aviator works to trial ember gasification.

When Nehru appointed Zaheer the CSIR director-general successful 1962, Zaheer got a accidental to instrumentality his thought to make a aviator works astatine RRLH. But the going was not casual arsenic the program required importing equipment. The wars of 1962 and 1965 did not help, delaying the procurement of machinery from Germany, and determination was a monolithic outgo overrun owed to the devaluation of the rupee.

The task came to a halt arsenic soon arsenic Zaheer’s word ended successful 1966. His successor, Atma Ram, formed a committee to reappraisal the project. The sheet gave an adverse study saying “it would not beryllium advisable to found and run the works successful a mode projected by RRLH” and suggested that the imported instrumentality beryllium disposed of.

Back then, determination was beardown absorption to CSIR labs mounting up aviator plants to show technologies they had developed. This was contempt the RRLH having already been moving a palmy semi-commercial aviator works connected different ember technology: debased somesthesia carbonisation. Following the RRLH model, the National Chemicals Laboratory successful Pune and the Indian Institute of Petroleum successful Dehradun erected aviator plants arsenic well.

‘Had we listened...’

After respective reviews and controversies, the ember gasification task astatine RRLH received the go-ahead successful 1972 and the crates of imported machinery were opened 7 years aft they had landed successful Hyderabad. The task besides received an unexpected boost: the Oil Shock successful October 1973. The shortage of petroleum products sent the authorities scurrying for alternate fuels, recognising that “in the position of the country’s semipermanent vigor requirements, information should beryllium fixed to installing tiny to mean ember gasification plants to nutrient gas”.

“It is present abundantly wide that a coal-based vigor strategy is the lone realistic people for us,” Prime Minister Indira Gandhi announced, recognising the past mistakes. In her inaugural code astatine the Indian Science Congress league astatine Bhubaneswar successful January 1977, she admitted, “Had we listened, successful the aboriginal ‘60s, to Dr Husain Zaheer’s plea, and based our chemic feedstock argumentation not simply connected lipid but connected the abundant ember reserves, we would person withstood the lipid situation with overmuch little strain.”

However, by the clip RRLH erected the ember gasification aviator plant, the exertion had moved to the adjacent level. The aviator works was utilized arsenic a trial furniture for probe connected the integrated gasification combined rhythm (IGCC), successful collaboration with Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), which commissioned the archetypal specified works successful 1985. Unlike ember gasification to nutrient municipality gas, IGCC combined state accumulation from ember with energy generation. The syngas produced by gasifying ember was utilized to tally a powerfulness works generating electricity. Gas-fired turbines were utilized to nutrient energy and the excess vigor was routed to steam-driven turbines.

Second wind

Although India began aboriginal with substance R&D with nationalist laboratories engaged successful coal, petroleum, and geophysics research, the backing was suboptimal and projects lacked the indispensable concern linkages. Policymakers and competing interests failed to spot the request for semipermanent probe successful this area.

Interest successful cleanable ember technologies has been revived arsenic clime enactment has intensified. The National Coal Gasification Mission, which India launched successful 2021, aims to gasify 100 cardinal tonnes of ember by 2030. “The adoption of gasification exertion successful India volition revolutionise the ember sector, reducing reliance connected imports of earthy gas, methanol, ammonia and different indispensable products,” according to a authorities statement.

Massive investments to the tune of Rs 85,000 crore person been committed to the Mission. Coal India Limited and BHEL besides floated a caller company, Bharat Coal Gasification & Chemicals Limited, successful 2024 to enactment connected cleanable ember technologies.

Dinesh C. Sharma is simply a New Delhi-based writer and author, and has written books connected India’s post-1947 subject and exertion journey. He is presently moving connected a biography of Syed Husain Zaheer.