Coal India to diversify into ‘coal to chemical’ business

Kolkata, March 3 (IANS) Coal India intends to diversify into a new "coal to chemical" business domain by converting the high calorific value, low ash thermal coal into chemical, the miner said in a document on Friday.

The miner invited Expression of Interest for pre qualification of Licensors of coal gasification technology for proposed coal based methanol plant.

"In pursuit of implementing this new strategy, the premises of the existing Dankuni Coal Complex have been identified as the location for setting up a Coal to Methanol complex by using the good quality coal from Ranigunj coalfield," the tender document said.

According to the document, the miner said the first step for this new venture would be pre-qualification of Coal Gasification Licensors who can produce syngas of required composition for production of Methanol utilising the Raniganj coal having ash content up to 28 per cent at a competitive cost.