Contract for coal gasification plant for urea project at the erstwhile Talcher unit of FCIL was awarded today.  The Minister of Chemicals & Fertilizers Shri Sadananda Gowda and the Minister for Petroleum Shri Dharmendra Pradhan presided over the contact Award Ceremony in New Delhi today. Both the leaders expressed happiness about the step that is being taken today and expected that the project would progress well.

Speaking on the occasion Shri Gowda said that it is heartening that the award is granted on this momentous day of VishwakarmaJayanti today.He hoped that this award on this auspicious day shall usher into making of New India.

The Minister said that India is an agriculture driven economy with a huge population which istouching 1.3 billion and counting. While this presents its own set of opportunities and strengths, feeding this huge population is an enormous task which our farmers are successfully doing for the past 70 years. For meeting the food requirements of the country, the role of fertilizers especially Urea in Indian context is paramount. Currently India imports about 50 to 70 lakh tones of urea every year to meet the urea requirement

Shri Gowda said that the Government is putting its earnest efforts to augment the availability of domestically produced urea and in this direction, efforts have started in the form of revival of closed FCIL and HFCL units at Sindri, Barauni, Ramagundam, Gorakhpur and Talcher.

Currently production of urea in the country is done by using pooled natural gas which comprises of domestic NG and imported LNG. Import of LNG is a costly affair and leads to spending valuable foreign exchange. Hence it is preferred that an indigenous raw material is used for production of urea and other fertilizers in the country. Talcher Fertilizer Project is a step in this direction wherein indigenous coal in a mix of petcoke shall be used for production of urea.

Talcher Fertilizers Limited (TFL) is implementing this Coal Gasification based Ammonia/Urea Project under Government's flagship program of revival of closed fertilizer units of Fertilizer Corporation of India Limited (FCIL). The project shall be the first operational Urea plant in Odisha and shall produce 1.27 MMTPA of Urea at an estimated investment of about Rs. 13000 Crore.

Coal gasification technology, which shall be deployed at TFL unit, is a state-of-the-art technology of M/s Air Products, USA and has been selected after following due shortlisting procedure.

The project shall use a blend of coal and petcoke as feedstock for production of Fertilizer. Coal for this project shall be sourced from captive Northern part of North Arkhapal mine in Talcher region allotted to TFL. Petcoke shall be sourced from Paradip refinery for the project. This project shall promote use of abundantly available domestic coal in an environment friendly manner. Also, success of this technology shall also propel usage of coal for production of other products like, syngas, diesel, methanol, petrochemicals etc.

The project shall improve India's self-sufficiency in Urea, promote agriculture growth in Odisha and increase reliability of Urea availability to farmers of Odisha in particular and India in general. This initiative would propel India towards self-reliance in the Urea sector through efforts under "Make in India".

Rest of the world is quite ahead in Coal Gasification with more than 200 Coal Gasifiers being operational which are being used to produce Syngas (SNG), Ammonia/Urea, Methanol and various petrochemicals. Being environment­friendly, this project shall help meet the commitments made by India during CoP-21 Paris Agreement. This project has the potential to be a game changer in Indian context due to the harnessing of Coal through cleaner technologies in sectors other than power and shall produce 2.38 MMSCMD of Natural Gas equivalent Syngas leading to direct reduction in LNG import bill.

The project is expected for completion in 2023 and would generate direct and indirect employment of about 4,500.

This project of National Importance is in sync with the vision of the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi of ushering in a New India by 2022 and is thus a project worth showcasing. The project marks a watershed moment for India and also exemplifies the resolve and courage shown by the Central Government to tackle complex and challenging issues in order to find optimal, pragmatic and long - lasting solutions in the interest of India's future generations.

 

KSP

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