CIL & BHEL to sign JVA to set up ammonium nitrate plant

The plant will come up in Odisha’s Lakhanpur area owned by Mahanadi Coalfields Limited.

It is planned to produce 2000 tons of ammonium nitrate per day initially.

The annual production is slated at 6.60 Lakh tons which requires 1.3 million tonnes (mts) of coal.

The coal will be supplied by CIL, while BHEL will bring to the table indigenously developed pressurized fluidized bed gasification (PFBG) technology for this purpose.

The synergy and partnership of the two corporate giants are viewed as a big step towards the National Coal Gasification Mission which facilitates utilization of the chemical properties of coal.

Ammonium nitrate is a major ingredient in the manufacturing of bulk explosives which CIL uses in large quantities in its OC mining operations, a major source of its coal production.

The upcoming plant as backward integration would help in securing the raw material, reducing import dependency on ammonium nitrate and promoting Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan.

On the occasion, Amrit Lal Meena, Coal Secretary said that with the commitment of CIL and BHEL, this project will be a role model.

“Gasification is the highest priority area for the Ministry of Coal. In the next two to three years there will be sufficient coal”, he said. All the possible support from government is in place including financial support for viable gap funding, he added.

Debasish Nanda, Director (Business Development) CIL, and Jai Prakash Srivastava, Director (Engineering, R&D) BHEL inked the JVA on behalf of respective promoter companies.

CIL will pursue alternative uses of coal for environment-friendly ventures like coal gasification in the future after fulfilling the requirements of the power sector. SCG is a promising technology that converts coal into valuable Syn gas.

This further processing produces synthetic natural gas that can be used as alternative natural gas.

Additionally, it can be used as feedstock for downstream chemical production, which is currently being imported, and for power generation.

Projects and Development India Limited, a Miniratna design engineering and consultancy company has been assigned the work of preparing a detailed feasibility report of the plant.

Physical possession of the land is in progress and will be completed by September 2024 after which construction activities will follow.