State-owned Coal India Ltd (CIL) on Monday said that it has invited global bids for setting up a coal to methanol plant.
Dankuni Coal Complex (DCC) in West Bengal, currently run by its subsidiary South Eastern Coalfields Ltd, is identified as the project site for the proposed plant.
"Coal India Limited (CIL) on Friday last floated an open global tender inviting bids for setting up a, first of its kind in India, coal to methanol (C2M) plant through surface coal gasification route on Build-Own-Operate (BOO) model," the PSU said in a statement.
Based on the outcome of pre-feasibility studies, CIL has floated this tender to select the BOO operator for the life span of the plant which is expected to be 25 years.
"This is a part of implementing the methanol economy programme of the government aimed at reducing the country's oil import bill," a senior executive of the company said.
The capital outlay of the entire plant is pegged at around Rs 6,000 crore though the cost would not be borne out of CIL's coffers.
BOO operators would own and lease the plant, apart from designing, building, maintaining, producing and storing the product.
However, CIL shall allocate the land, power, water to the operator for the proposed plant. Land is available.
Approximately 6.76 lakh tonnes of methanol per annum is targeted to be produced from the plant to be used for blending with petrol up to 15 per cent.
At this capacity the plant will cater to the methanol requirement of four eastern states of the country - West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand and Bihar. The company is in dialogue with IOCL and other government-owned oil companies for a long-term tie-up for assured marketing of methanol.
CIL would also supply low-ash high calorific coal of Ranigunj coalfields, having an ash content of around 24 per cent, as basic raw material for the production of 2,050 metric tonnes of methanol per day.
The PSU would meet around 1.5 million tonnes of coal requirement annually.
CIL has aligned itself with the national objective of reducing dependence on imported crude and the plan to set up the plant is a step in that direction.
Project Developments India Limited (PDIL) the government-owned consultancy and engineering CPSE has been retained as the consultant for the selection of the BOO operator.
The prospective bidder should be an established BOO operator having successfully built plants on BOO basis in coal to liquid, coal gasification, coal to chemical, fertilizer and methanol and the like.
While the mechanical setup of the plant is expected to be completed in 36 months, the actual commissioning of the plant is envisaged to be in 41 months. The last date for the submission of bids is December 17.