Last updated on July 14th, 2023 at 05:13 pm
In Bengaluru today, Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India Shri Hardeep S. Puri inaugurated the demo-run of an Inland Water Vessel powered by Methanol blended Diesel (MD15) in a run-up to India Energy Week 2023 (IEW 2023).
The Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Labour, and Employment for the Government of India, Shri Rameswar Teli, was also present on the occasion.
The boat ride was carried out on a 50-seater motor launch sea vessel named ‘The SB Gangadhar’.Each of the two 105-hp Ruston diesel engines on the marine vessel is in good working order. The boat will be run on a 15% methanol blend of HSD.
Methanol is a low-carbon hydrogen carrier fuel produced from high-ash coal, agricultural residues, CO2 from thermal power plants, and natural gas. This is the best way forward for India to fulfill its commitment to COP 21.
Although slightly lower in energy content than petrol and diesel, methanol has replaced both these fuels in the transport sector (road, rail, and marine), power sector (includes DG sets, boilers, process heating modules, tractors, and commercial vehicles) Can do. and retail cooking (replacing LPG [partly], kerosene and wood charcoal).
“In Assam, Assam Petrochemical Limited (APL), Namrup currently produces about 100 TPD of Methanol and is implementing a new project for the production of five hundred TPD of Methanol,” the Minister informed the media today.
“He further added that work is in progress to set up Coal-to-Methanol plants in the country using indigenous technology.” The technology is being developed by BHEL (Hyderabad and Trichy), Thermax, and IIT Delhi.
