(ET)
The Modi government has put a Rs 40,000 crore bet on new technologies to decarbonise India’s vast reserves of Black Diamond as the world’s second-largest coal consumer continues to draw flak from climate activists and renewables chip away at demand from thermal power stations.
In its latest initiative to find cleaner use for coal, state-run behemoth Coal India and its subsidiaries are in the process of setting up five projects to make methanol, or methyl alcohol, from coal using what is commonly known as CTL (coal-to-liquid) technology. Each of these projects is estimated to cost approximately Rs 6,000 crore.
