Union Minister for Heavy Industries Mahendra Nath Pandey on Saturday dedicated India’s first BHEL-built ‘coal to methanol’ (CTM) pilot plant to the nation here, as part of the ongoing ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ celebrations, an official release said. Pandey also inaugurated an exhibition on ‘Products Developed under Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ organised at Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited’s (BHEL) Hyderabad unit, it said.

Speaking on the occasion, the Union minister said one of the important goals of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision is to build a self-reliant nation. “The role of the manufacturing sector will be crucial in realising this vision. The government has already highlighted the importance of the manufacturing sector through schemes like Make in India and Aatmanirbhar Bharat”, he said. Pandey further said the capital goods industry is the backbone of the manufacturing sector as it provides critical inputs such as machinery and equipment to a broad set of user-industries.

The 0.25 TPD (tonnes per day) capacity CTM pilot plant that has been indigenously designed, developed and installed by BHEL is currently producing methanol with purity of more than 99 per cent from high-ash Indian coal. Significantly, this conversion of high-ash Indian coal to methanol through the gasification route is the first-of-its-kind technology demonstration in India, the release added.