COAL GASIFICATION

ChinmayaIAS Academy - Current Affairs February 3, 2022 GS3 Leave a comment 621 Views

Recently, the Delhi-based non-profit, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), has raised concerns about the Union Government’s announcement on coal gasification projects in the Budget 2022-23.
The budget proposed four pilot projects for coal gasification and conversion of coal into chemicals required for the industry.
According to CSE, the process of coal gasification is not attractive from a climate change point of view.
Coal gasification is a process in which coal is partially oxidised with air, oxygen, steam or carbon dioxide to form a fuel gas.
This gas is then used instead of piped natural gas, methane and others for deriving energy.
In-situ gasification of coal – or Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) – is the technique of converting coal into gas while it is still in the seam and then extracting it through wells.
It produces Syngas which is a mixture consisting primarily of methane (CH4), carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (H2), carbon dioxide (CO2) and water vapour (H2O).
Syngas can be used to produce a wide range of fertilizers, fuels, solvent and synthetic materials.
Steel companies typically use coking coal in their manufacturing process. Most of the coking coal is imported and is expensive.
To cut costs, plants can use syngas, which comes from coal gasification plants in the place of coking coal.
It is primarily used for electricity generation, for the production of chemical feedstocks.
The hydrogen obtained from coal gasification can be used for various purposes such as making ammonia, powering a hydrogen economy.

Hydrogen Economy

It is an economy that relies on hydrogen as the commercial fuel that would deliver a substantial fraction of a nation’s energy and services.
Hydrogen is a zero-carbon fuel and is considered an alternative to fuel and a key source of clean energy.
It can be produced from renewable sources of energy such as solar and wind.
It is an envisioned future where hydrogen is used as fuel for vehicles, energy storage and long-distance transport of energy.
The different pathways to use hydrogen economy includes hydrogen production, storage, transport and utilization.
In 1970, the term ‘Hydrogen Economy’ was coined by John Bockris.
He mentioned that a hydrogen economy can replace the current hydrocarbon-based economy, leading to a cleaner environment.
Coal gasification actually produces more carbon dioxide than a conventional coal-powered thermal power plant.
According to CSE estimates, one unit of electricity generated by burning gasified coal generates 2.5 times more carbon dioxide than what would result when burning the coal directly.
Efficiency Perspective: The syngas process converts a relatively high-quality energy source (coal) to a lower quality state (gas) and consumes a lot of energy in doing so.
Thus, the efficiency of conversion is also low.