India’s Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has given approval for a subsidy to promote the use of coal gasification being used to revive the Talcher Fertilizers Ltd. (TFL) urea project, according to the Press Trust of India. India has large coal reserves but is short on natural gas, a traditional nitrogen feedstock. There are currently no operational coal-to-urea plants in India.
Stamicarbon, a unit of Maire Tecnimont Group, Milan, has licensed the technology for a grassroots urea plant for TFL (GM Jan. 24, 2020). It will deliver a package for a 3,850 mt/d melt and prilling plant. At the time of the license, plant commissioning was expected in 2023. The complex is in the Angul District in the State of Odisha, in eastern India.
TFL is a joint venture between Gail India Ltd., Coal India Ltd., Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers Ltd. and Fertilizer Corp. of India Ltd. (FCIL).
Despite the subsidy, other press reports have recently suggested that tensions between China and India may have slowed the project. China’s Wuhuan Engineering has the contract to build TFL’s coal gasification unit (GM Sept. 20, 2019).