Tag: coal

Jindal Steel says that it has achieved a global first by establishing India’s first coal gasification-based direct reduced iron (DRI) plant, using syngas for iron making. In response to shortages of natural gas, LPG and propane, Jindal Steel has also looked to deploy syngas in galvanising and colour coating line furnaces, as well as injecting syngas into its blast furnace, reducing dependence on imported coking coal and lowering carbon emissions per tonne of steel.

Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd says that it has secured a $305 million contract from Bharat Coal Gasification and Chemicals Ltd (BCGCL) for a syngas purification plant at Lakhanpur, Odisha. The lump sum turnkey package includes design, engineering, equipment supply, civil works, commissioning and 60-month operation and maintenance services. The project, part of BCGCL's planned 2,000 t/d ammonium nitrate facility, has a 42-month execution timeline. BCGCL is a joint venture between Coal India Ltd, with a 51% stake and BHEL with a 49% shareholding.

The government of Pakistan has published a ‘strategic roadmap’ for the country’s major Coal-to-Fertiliser (C2F) initiative. The project is being executed by the publicly-owned Fauji Fertiliser Company (FFC), and will use local coal reserves at Thar as feedstock for the ammonia plant, which will in turn feed 720,000 t/a of urea capacity. The $1.1 billion project aims to strengthen the country’s fertiliser security as well as add value to local resources. A bankable feasibility study was completed in November 2025, and the project is now in the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) and project agreements phase. Under the proposed timeline, financial closure is expected between late 2026 and 2027, while commercial operations are targeted to commence in January 2031.

Johnson Matthey (JM) says that the three methanol production trains of Inner Mongolia Baofeng Coal-based New Materials Co., Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Ningxia Baofeng Energy Group, were successfully commissioned in November 2024, February 2025, and March 2025, respectively. Located in the Wushenqi Sulige Economic Development Zone of Ordos City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, this plant employs Johnson Matthey’s advanced methanol synthesis technology and catalysts, making it the largest single methanol plant in the world. Inner Mongolia Baofeng also stands as one of the largest chemical enterprises globally that produces polyethylene and polypropylene by using coal as a substitute for oil.

Casale has been awarded a contract to supply melamine technology by Anhui Haoyuan Chemical Group. The new melamine plant will feature Casale’s uLEM-N technology, with a design capacity of 60,000 t/a, and will be fully integrated into an urea plant operated by Anhui Haoyuan. This is the third project that the two companies have developed together, following the successful implementation of two 1,500 t/a ammonia synthesis loop plants based on Casale’s N-LOOP™ technology.

Suiso, a South African company specialising in blue ammonia production, is set to invest $1.7 billion in a coal-to-fertiliser facility in Kriel, Mpumalanga in the east of South Africa. The proposal is for a 1.5 million t/a ‘blue’ ammonia-urea plant which will replace South Africa’s annual imports of 1.2 million t/a of urea, as well as producing 235,000 t/a of blue methanol for fuels, using advanced decarbonisation and carbon capture technologies. Suiso is partnering with Sinopec Ningbo Engineering, Stamicarbon, and ETG – the latter will distribute Suiso’s fertilisers across Africa, supporting local agriculture and long-term food security.

Polish company Hynfra PSA and the New & Renewable Energy Development Corporation of Andhra Pradesh have signed a memorandum of understanding to create the joint venture company JK Srivastava Hynfra (JKSH). The company plans invest $4 billion to build a new green ammonia plant powered by up to 3 GW of solar and wind energy supported by battery storage at Visakhapatnam in India’s Andhra Pradesh province. The plant will initially produce 100,000 t/a of green ammonia, with the eventual goal of scaling up to 1 million t/a. The first phase is due to be completed in Q1 2029. Some of the green ammonia will be exported to Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, while the remainder will be used domestically in the fertiliser and power sectors, particularly to support the decarbonisation of coal-based power generation through ammonia co-firing.

India’s push to replace its sizeable urea imports with home grown capacity continues, but may not keep pace with rising domestic demand.

Carbon Recycling International (CRI), which operates a geothermally powered green methanol plant at Svartsengi, 40km southwest of Reykjavik, had to evacuate its site in late November when a 3km fissure opened in the earth a few kilometres away and lava began spilling across adjacent land. Satellite photos of the area taken on November 24 show a large field of molten and cooled lava to the north, west, and south of Svartsengi, though the plant itself remained undamaged. CRI’s Iceland facility runs on CO2 , water, and renewable electricity from the Svartsengi geothermal power station. CRI says the low-carbon energy source allows it to produce 4,000 t/a of methanol with a greenhouse gas footprint just 10–20% that of conventional methanol.

In spite of increasing environmental concerns over the use of coal as a feedstock, it continues to provide around one quarter of the world’s ammonia. But in a world that is decarbonising, is there still a future for coal-based capacity?