The Tatas have firmed up the economics of setting up India?s first coal-to-liquid (CTL) plant to be set up in collaboration with the South African petrochemicals giant, Sasol International, the world?s largest producer of oil from coal.
A joint capital investment of $8 billion has been projected by the Tatas and Sasol for executing a mega-sized CTL project, with a capacity of 80,000 barrels of oil per day.
Towards this, the two companies ? in a recent joint presentation on the project to coal secretary HC Gupta?- have projected a requirement of 1,000-1,400 million tonne of extractable open cast coal mining reserves. These reserves will enable mining operations of 28-31 million tonne of run-of-the mine (ROM) coal per annum for the project.
In its presentation to the coal secretary, the Tata-Sasol duo has stated that to sustain a 80,000 barrels per day CTL plant, the quality of the coal should be such that the ash and total moisture content should be less than 50%.
In addition, the entire coal quantity has to be met from on location which means that it has to be pithead project. ?The coal quantities should enable mining operations of 28-31 million tonne of ROM coal per annum (dependent on percentage of coal ash). This would mean extractable opencast mining coal reserves of 1,000-1,400 million tonne,? it said.
On the coal feedstock cost, the companies said the techno-economics of coal deposits should allow for coal supply to the plant, including coal beneficiation (if so required) at $10-12 per tonne (all in costs).
For the proposed CTL plant in India, Sasol will use the Fischer Tropsch (FT) technology, which would converts the syngas (extracted from coal) into oil (liquid) which can be refined to produce diesel, naphtha, jet fuel, LPG and base oils (lubricants).
Following chemical synthesis, other products that can be produced include methanol, DME and LAB (surfactants).
Sasol is a leader in the gas-to-liquid (GTL) and coal-to-liquid (CTL) technologies, which have been attracting attention recently because they provide an alternative to traditional oil extraction besides potentially creating opportunities for oil importing countries like India and China.
Sasol is also in negotiations for two similar CTL plants in China.
Both India and China have demonstrated their voracious appetites for fuel in recent years and their demands for energy are expected to grow in the near term.
CTL and GTL technologies are proving to be excellent alternatives for oil dependent countries like India and China.
