Potential Of Unconventional Sources Of Natural Gas

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Dissertation submitted to college of Management and Economic Studies for the partial fulfillment of the degree of

MBA (Energy Trading)

Guided by

Surbhi Arora

Asst. Professor

College of Management Studies

University of Petroleum and Energy Studies

Submitted by –

Mohit Sharma

Enrollment no : R590211017

Sap ID: 500014825

College of Management and Economic Studies (CMES)

University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES)

Dehradun, Uttrakhand (UK)

India (UK)

2011-13

Certificate of Originality

This is to hereby state with the intention of this report is original in every sense of the terms and condition and it carries a sense of honor and belief and that no shortcuts have been taken and I remained both meticulous and caring during the prevalence of this research work. I have put in my point best to keep this work as informative and precise as possible.

It may be also stated here that during the preparation of this report some help has been taken from a scope of professionally shared information & knowledge, a comprehensive description of which has been mention in the references chapter of this report.

Dated:

Signature:

Mohit Sharma

R590211017

MBA – Energy Trading (2011-13)

University of Petroleum & Energy Studies

Dehradun, India.

BONAFIDE CERTIFICATE

This to certificate that the project titled "Potential of Unconventional Sources of Natural Gas in India" submitted to University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun, by Mohit Sharma , in partial execution of Masters of Business Administration (Energy Trading) , is a bonafide work carried out by him under my guidance and supervision. This particular work hasn’t been submitted anywhere else for any other degree . To the best of my awareness, he has made a sober and out- and- out effort to accomplish his project.

I wish him all the very best for his future endeavors.

Surbhi Arora

Assistant Professor

College of Management & Economic Studies,

University of Petroleum & Energy Studies,

Dehradun

Acknowledgement

I acknowledge with my deep gratitude, from the bottom of my heart to the almighty and a number of people (my parents, siblings, MBA Energy Trading course faculty) who always stood by me at every and each stage of this project and helped me a lot to stay put motivated and keep throughout this project.

I owe a debt of my gratitude to my mentor assistant professor Surbhi Arora, who despite of her busy schedule, guided me in this project (with a background of extensive research and years of study of Shale Gas, Coal Bed Methane and Gas Hydrates), provided suggestions and also shared her experience which helped me in analyzing diverse aspects of this work

My Sincere gratitude to Mr. Shailendra Kumar Pokhariyal (Head of Department, Oil and Gas Department), Ms. Somya Sharma (Assistant Professor), Ms. Sonal Gupta (Assistant Professor ), with whom I was frequently in touch on the subject of the completion the project.

Last but not the least; I would like to thanks my peers who were in some way supporting me all through the prevalence of this assignment.

Mohit Sharma

R590211017

MBA Energy Trading (2011-13)

University of Petroleum & Energy Studies

Dehradun

Part 1

Indian Energy Scenario

1.1 : Background and Introduction

India’s Combined Installed Capacity – 215 GW (which is fifth largest in world)

India’s energy pie is largely dependent on thermal power plants and non-renewable sources of energy and for sustainable development it is essential to increase the share of renewable sources of energy. The per capita avg. annual domestic electricity consumption in India was 95

(year - 2009) kWh in rural areas and 287 kWh in urban areas for those with access to electricity, in contrast to the worldwide per capita annual average of 2650 kWh and 6250 kWh in the European Union. India's total domestic, agricultural and industrial (all primary, secondary as well as tertiary sectors) per capita energy consumption estimate varies depending on the source. Two sources place it between 400 to 700 kWh in 2008–2009. As of January 2012, one report found the per capita total consumption in India to be 778 kWh.

Installed Capacity

Non-Renewable Sources – 87.5% (7/8)

Renewable Sources – 12.5% (1/8)

india_energy_source_1.jpg

Electricity has become an important aspect, the life blood of the modern world, without which the world will come to almost a virtual standstill. Any sluggishness in the growth of the electricity industry in any part of the world can throw the region far behind other regions in industrial, economic and social growth. Thus, power has been widely recognized as one of the key factors of infrastructure development, for a sustained growth of the country. Power/Electricity is a primary input factor on which the progress of the economy of a country largely depends. Full utilization of other input factors, such as manpower, land including irrigation, and capital-related resources of an economy depend upon the availability of electricity. In other words, it is not only a key input factor but it also plays a strategic role in utilizing fully the other resources towards the progress of the economy. In addition, electricity has become an essential factor in improving the social conditions and welfare of people. Thus, power is an input essential to the integrated economy of the country. Electricity, therefore, acts with a multiplier effect. Any shortfall in the availability of such a significant and strategic input factor will make the betterment of economy of a nation a distant hope. Thus, electricity is the most essential and vital ingredient for the growth of the nation in the social, industrial, commercial, and agricultural sectors. Hence a balanced development of electricity was identified as an important goal. Well recognized as ‘the industry of industries’ or the as the ‘mother industry’, electricity industry deserves priority in development and necessary support for sustainability during the planning process by the Government.

 

Also, in the social field, power maintains its supremacy on all fronts, from daily needs and comforts-entertainment to as basic as agriculture and kitchen operations. The role of power sector in economic development is so tremendous that numerous economists very often establish a one-to-one correspondence between energy and economic development. The considered view of many of the influential groups of experts is that the poor state of affairs in infrastructure, including power, is one of the basic maladies of tardy economic growth, a volume or multitude of problems are rising up in the field of electricity industry. This has attracted keen attention from policy makers around the world and rigoros efforts to tackle these problems have become the order of the day. Industrial growth has been so fast and explosive in these years that the increase in energy supply could not maintain an equal pace.

The main problems faced by the world are rapid depletion of non-renewable energy sources, also known as unconventional sources increasing costs for energy, and inability to create sufficient number of ROI for growth. These problems have created a shortage of power in both quantity and quality. Electricity industry was mainly treated as a Government business all over the world, considering its importance as a vital infrastructure for the growth of the country. But growth in the sector, however impressive it was, looked insufficient to cope with the impulsive growth in industrial and other sectors. Consequently, the whole vision on the subject has been undergoing a swift change. A major shift in the electrical industry worldwide is the thinking that it is to be managed by the private sector rather than by the government. Thus, an era of reform for the power sector has opened up.

 

The swift ability to cater to the growing demands of the society and maintaining a sustainable pattern of functioning are few of the main challenges before the industry. Considering its importance as the vital infrastructure for the industrial, economic and social growth of humanity, experts, engineers, economists and policy formers of various countries are working hard for identification of the possible flaws and remedies for them.

Power is extracted or derived from various sources to meet many requirements of humans in this modern age. Energy is used for lighting/illumination, heating, motive power in automobiles, ships & aero planes, water pumping, refrigeration & air conditioning, cooking, motive power of various appliances/machinery, electronic data storage, etc in all sectors such as agriculture, industrial, commercial and domestic sectors. The value of energy minerals produced in India is more than 85% (about 5/6) of all the minerals produced. In addition India imports large quantity of fossil fuels spending huge chunk of its exports income. These energy minerals are also used as raw material in production of industrial products but the usage as source of energy is many folds.

The following are the primary energy sources

Thermal energy (India is largely dependent on this source of energy): Fossil fuels (ex: coal, natural gas, crude oil & its products), nuclear fuels, biomass (including wood), geo thermal energy, industrial by products (ex: LPG, coke oven gas & blast furnace gas), etc.

Hydro power(Development of this source has been steady over the years): Hydro power energy excluding pumped storage operation.

Non conventional energy: Solar energy, wind power, wave power, tidal power, animal draught power, etc in which due to the diversity possessed by India it has huge potential but in the lack of techniques, methods to tap those sources or make a conversion the power derived is far less than the actual potential, even when compared to nations which do not get the amount of sunlight and related diversity factors associated with the sunlight.

However, energy exists in many forms such as electricity, thermal/heat/chemical energy, potential energy, kinetic energy, etc. Power is the most coveted form of energy since it is simple to convert in to other energy forms at very high-conversion efficiency and least effects on environment with the help of motors, furnaces, etc. Also transmitting electricity by cables / conductors is comparatively simple and clean method. All the primary energy resources are used to produce power as an intermediate energy before converting in to final power requirements. The major drawback of power is that it cannot be stored in bulk for using in mobile/transport applications. So the liquid fuels are predominantly used in transport sector. The countries which are endowed with crude oil (considered source of liquid fuels) reserves are considered as potentially rich countries irrespective of non energy minerals and availability of human resources.

These power fuels are not uniformly distributed on earth to meet their demand. Exploration, extraction and transportation along with final conversion of fuels to ultimate energy is a very highly capital intensive. They also emit pollutants such as dust, SOx, NOx and various green house gases which are harmful to human beings health and long survival. All fossil or biomass fuels contain carbon and hydrogen elements which are mainly contributing to heat energy when burnt or oxidized. The carbon present in the solid/liquid form in these fuels is converted in to gaseous form carbon dioxide. Continuous use of these carbonaceous fuels for meeting ever increasing global energy consumption is gradually increasing the CO2 in the earth atmosphere. Higher concentrations of Carbon di Oxide in the earth atmosphere will aid the green house phenomenon or global warming. So carbon derived energy is gradually discouraged. Coal emits 95% of heat energy from its carbon content whereas natural gas (NG), petroleum fuels & bio mass emit less than 50% of heat energy. Global warming point of view, coal is considered as main culprit.

India is endowed with vast coal reserves though other conventional fuels are not adequately available. India is also endowed with abundant non conventional energy resources such as Thorium nuclear fuel and solar energy but commercially viable technologies are not available to harness these resources on large scale. The various energy resources used in India are given below -

Petroleum products: These are derived from crude oil which India imports 80% of its requirements. Diesel, petrol, etc are used in transport sector as motive fuel for road vehicles, locomotives and ships. Many of these products are also used as raw material in the manufacture of organic chemicals, synthetic fibers, synthetic rubbers, plastics, fertilizers, etc. which have wide application in present day civilization. When other fuels are not available, these petroleum products are also used for electricity generation, heating and lighting purposes as alternative fuels. The major advantage of these fuels is their transportability by the transport networks such as roads, railways and ships. They can also be stored easily for mobile and stationary applications. Due to these advantages, petroleum products are extensively and intensively used to power all mobile vehicles covering road, rail, marine and air transport sectors.

Natural gas: This is a gaseous fuel and relatively less polluting fuel. Unlike liquid fuels, its inland transportability is possible by pipeline network only and maritime transport is possible by refrigerating in to liquid below minus 160°C temperature. In maritime transport of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), heavy investments are incurred in liquefaction, transport and re-gasification processes. NG has commercial limitation in transporting across the seas. Being a clean fuel and ease of use, it is preferred fuel especially in domestic and commercial sectors. To control the air pollution in cities, Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) is increasingly used in intra city transport vehicles in place of diesel/petrol fuels. Natural gas can also be used in Iron manufacturing to reduce the coking coal consumption in blast furnaces. At present, the available NG is mainly used in fertilizer manufacture and power generation.

LPG: Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) is extracted from natural gas or produced as a by product from crude oil refining. This gas can be easily liquefied by compressing it to 8 bar pressure at ambient temperature. In addition to pipe line transport, LPG is also transported and stored in pressurized cylinders / tanks. LPG is also clean fuel similar to natural gas and also can be stored in bulk for use in mobile vehicles. The indigenously available LPG is not adequate to meet its ever increasing consumption. In India, most of the LPG produced and imported is used as cooking fuel.

Nuclear Fuels: These fuels are used to generate electricity in addition to meet military requirements. The conventional nuclear fuels are Uranium and Plutonium which are used for electricity generation. India does not have substantial conventional nuclear fuels to depend on these fuels for its electricity requirements. However India is blessed with substantial Thorium reserves which can be used for electricity generation once the relevant technology is perfected for commercial level use.

Using nuclear fuels is also fraught with environmental problems such as radiation leakages, disposal of spent radioactive fuels & equipment, decommissioning of nuclear reactors after their useful life, etc. The initial capital requirements and the decommissioning expenses of nuclear power plants are very high. Some critics say that the electricity consumed in establishing and operating a nuclear power plant exceeds the electricity it can generate in its life time.

Hydro power: Electricity is generated by harnessing the water energy when water is descending in the rivers from high level to lower level. Hydro power is very clean energy. Hydropower plants installation submerges vast area of land and creates social and environmental problems such as displacement of population, submergence of forests, etc. The hydro electricity potential in India is approximately 85,000 MW at 60% load factor. Most of the untapped hydro power is located in North Eastern states. Another 1,00,000 MW at 60% load factor is available lying on both sides of border between China and India which can be jointly harnessed in future.

Wind Power: Electricity is generated from the wind energy. The areas with wind speeds exceeding 15 Km per hour is suitable for locating wind power generators. Wind power is also clean fuel but birds get killed when they try to pass through the wind generator rotor. There is no control on electricity generation from these units as the power is generated depending on erratic wind availability. India has nearly 10,000 MW wind energy potential at 60% load factor.

Wave energy: Wave power is secondary power from wind power. When the wind is blowing on seas/ water bodies, some of the wind energy gets transmitted to water creating wave energy. Till now wave energy is not harnessed for electricity generation on major scale. However there are possibilities to harness wave and wind energy available on oceans to augment fresh water availability and hydro electricity generation. Due to deference in solar radiation incidence on earth surface, the atmospheric global winds are generated on land as well as on oceans. These winds while passing over the seas pick up moisture and convert in to clouds. These clouds yield most of the fresh water in the form of rains on the land mass. Often, rain fall is not adequate in many regions/countries due to unfavorable conditions in the oceans such as ocean currents, surface temperature, etc though the global wind patterns are not changing. The available wave and wind power on the oceans can be utilized to enrich the winds with moisture irrespective of nature’s vagaries. The oscillating water surface when waves are formed are used to pump sea water few meters above the surface level and further atomized in to fine droplets / mist by using wind energy. The mist spayed in to the winds would fully vaporize enhancing the humidity of air / winds. The augmented moisture in the winds segregates in to clouds to yield more rain subsequently on land mass.

The south west winds and north east winds are the sources of monsoon rains on Indian subcontinent. South west monsoon winds come from Arabian Sea and cross the peninsular India yielding rain and pass on Bay of Bengal and blow in to North India yielding rain again. North east monsoon winds enrich with moisture while passing on Bay of Bengal and subsequently yield rain in southern part of India. Though the augmentation of global/monsoon winds with moisture is a gigantic infrastructure building task, it is technically feasible by harnessing a fraction of renewable wind energy available on the territorial oceans. Land mass becomes greener / rich in vegetation acting as carbon sequestration. Many countries face severe water shortage frequently and many more countries are occupied by vast deserts (middle east and north Africa) though sea is located adjacent to these regions.

Biomass: In agriculturally developed pockets of India, agro waste such as rice husk, crop waste, baggassi, inedible plants and leaves, wood from old plantations, etc is available. Generally rural masses consume bio mass for their cooking requirements. When it is found in surplus, it is also used in electricity generation and process industry. Bio-mass also can be gasified to produce synthetic gas, liquefied by fast pyrolysis process to produce bio-oil and carbonized by slow pyrolysis to produce charcoal. All these processes produce varying percentage of bio-char (charcoal), bio-oil and bio-gas.

Biomass carbonization: This is well known technology to produce charcoal and town gas in olden days. The biomass is carbonized either at low temperature (up to 600 deg C) or at high temperature (up to 1200 deg C) in the absence of oxygen. The products of biomass carbonization/slow pyrolysis are charcoal (25% by wt), 850 Nm3 town gas per ton of dry biomass and organic liquid chemicals (30% by wt). The town gas contains hydrogen (45% by wt) with gross calorific value of 3000 Kcal/Nm3.

Bio-oil production: Bio mass can be converted in to bio-oil / pyrolysis oil by the latest fast pyrolysis technologies with conversion efficiency up to 70%. Bio-oil has only 50% of heating value of crude oil and also unstable liquid. The bio-oil is rich in Oxygen content and also acidic unlike crude oil and its derivatives. Extensive research is being done to make bio-oil suitable for mobile vehicles though it can be used for stationary low and medium speed diesel engines and gas turbines with minor changes. The production cost of bio-oil is around Rs 10 per kg when the dry biomass cost is Rs 2.5 per kg.

Pyrolysis oil can be separated in to a water soluble fraction rich in oxygen content and a heavier pyrolytic lignin. Pyrolytic lignin can be used as feed stock to produce naphtha, diesel, etc by hydro-processing (i.e. reaction with Hydrogen). Hydrogen is produced from water soluble fraction of pyrolysis oil.

The garbage collected in Indian cities and towns has higher water content and biomass. This type of wet / watery garbage is converted commercially in to Bio-oil / Bio-crude by Hydro thermal upgrading (HTU) method which is also a type of pyrolysis process.

Biomass gasification: Biomass is gasified in the presence of steam and air to generate producer gas/synthetic gas. Most of the biomass is converted in to producer gas which is rich in hydrogen (15% by wt) with gross calorific value of 1500 kcal/Nm3. In gasification process, the available thermal energy is utilized to produce more hydrogen by splitting water molecules for optimum hydrogen yield. The nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium) present in the biomass are accumulated in the produced ash which can be used as fertilizer.

Presently, the non woody surplus biomass such as inedible leaves, inedible crop waste, twigs, etc are either burnt or allowed to degenerate in the fields emitting green house gases such as methane and carbon dioxide. Cattle droppings, human excreta, household garbage, bagasse, poultry droppings, chicken feathers, waste hair, used tires, waste paper, etc are also biomass which can be used for producing bio-oil, bio-gas and bio-char. The spent dung from anaerobic digesters (gobar gas plants) can also be used in production of bio-oil. In India, the dry inedible biomass availability is nearly equal to all the fossil fuels consumption which is approximately 750 million tons per year. This biomass quantity can produce bio-oil three times equal to India’s crude oil imports and generate Bio-char of 200 million tons annually. The bio-char with heating value 7500 Kcal/kg can replace all the mined coal consumed by its thermal power stations. The bio-gas produced from pyrolysis process contains nearly 5% hydrogen by weight. The hydrogen in the bio-gas generated can produce 50 million tons of Urea fertilizer which will transform India in to Urea exporter after meeting all internal consumption.

Ethanol: Ethanol / ethyl alcohol is fermented from biomass which is rich in starch / carbohydrates content. It is also consumed by humans in large quantities as liquor. Ethanol can be used as transport fuel by blending in diesel and gasoline fuels. Presently ethanol is produced from food grains and sugarcane which are costly and predominantly used as food source. The economics of using food grains and sugarcane as fuel source is not favorable since they fetch more value as food source in India. Sugar cane is a long duration irrigated crop and consumes lot of water. Cultivation of sweet sorghum which is seasonal dry land crop is a better source of biomass and Ethanol production in huge quantities for meeting the needs of transport fuel.

Bio-diesel: The inedible oil seeds produced by plants and trees can be the source of fuel for mobile vehicles to replace costly imported diesel and petrol (gasoline) fuels. The non edible vegetable oils extracted from Jathropa, Karanj (Hindi) / Honge (Kannada) / Koroch (Pongamia pinnata), Algae, etc can be used directly by blending 20% oil in diesel fuel or can be converted in to bio-diesel by esterification of these vegetable oils to replace diesel and petrol fuels totally. Esterification is achieved by adding methanol or ethanol to the vegetable oils. The estimated vegetable oil yields of bio-diesel crops are

Soybean: 0.4 tonnes oil/ha.year

Rapeseed: 0.8 tonnes oil/ha.year

Jathropha: 1-1.5 tonnes oil/ha.year (non edible)

Palmoil: 4 tonnes oil/ha.year

Koroch / Karanj: 3 – 4.5 tonnes oil/ha.year (non edible)

Algae: 10-25 tonnes oil/ha.year (non edible)

The most promising sources of bio-diesel are Algae and Koroch (Bengali) which need not compete with other crops and natural forests for land, water, sunlight, etc.

Algae: Algae (pond scum) are tiny cellular plants suspending in water (fresh, brackish and sea water) which absorb dissolved carbon dioxide in water to produce biomass by photosynthesis with the help of sun light. Algae grow fast and many species of algae contain up to 60% of its dry mass as Bio-diesel (lipids / fats). The de-oiled algae cake is rich in proteins and is good source to augment proteins in cattle and poultry feed. Extensive research has taken place on algae cultivation in developed countries to demonstrate the farming technology but it could not be commercialized in these countries because of limited favorable weather conditions and high cost of labor. However India has favorable tropical climate to cultivate algae throughout the year on its sandy coastal areas using abundantly available sea water or brackish water. The only external raw material required is carbon dioxide gas in Indian climate. The gobar gas produced in rural areas by using cattle dung contains 50% carbon dioxide gas and 50% methane. When this gobar gas is used in electricity generation by diesel engines, the available exhaust gas is the cheap source of carbon dioxide gas for algae cultivation in rural areas. The combustion gases from Biomass / bio char burning can also be cheap local source of carbon dioxide gas. The skilled labor cost in rural India is also nominal compared to western countries.

Algae cultivation is not new in India. Algae are used to treat the sewage water in natural oxidation ponds to produce oxygen to meet the Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD). Algae produced in the oxidation ponds are not yet harnessed for Bio-diesel production in India. Indian climate is very much suitable for Algae cultivation similar to natural oxidation ponds. Spirulina which is an alga rich in proteins content is commercially cultivated in India.

Koroch: Koroch in Bangladesh is a fresh water flooded tree. This tree can grow on lands which are water inundated up to1.5 meters depth for six months at a stretch. The seedlings can survive under water during the long submergence period. Koroch tree reaches 20 meters height and lives for 100 years. The dry seed pods contain 25% toxic vegetable oil which can be used as bio-diesel. Koroch / Honge is a tree native of India whose oil is used in illumination lamps in olden days. Since Koroch is a flooded forest tree, it can be grown in our man made water reservoirs up to a depth of 1.5 meters without the need to compete with land based food crops. India has nearly 30,000 square km of manmade water bodies and many water storage reservoirs are yet to be built to harness the water resources fully. The reservoir bed up to 1.5 meters depth are exposed for seven months in a year when the stored water in these water bodies are used for irrigation, drinking water, etc,

India can become self sufficient in its energy requirements if one year oil imports cost (50 billion US$) is invested on pyrolysis oil and bio-diesel production technologies/infrastructure to meet its energy needs. India is endowed with tropical climate to sustain these renewable and carbon neutral energy resources.

Solar energy: The energy of sun light is used for electricity generation during day time. The average solar radiation per square meter is one KW during day time. Clouds free sky is required to generate solar power and also it needs vast unused area by farm lands, water bodies and forests which also depend on sun light for their existence. Solar power generation on major scale is not yet commercially proven. Though it is a clean energy, the materials used in solar cells may be source of soil and water contamination causing health hazards. India is blessed with vast solar energy resources and substantial solar power generation is possible as the technology matures.

Animal draught power: Animal power is extensively used in agriculture and transport in rural areas. The draught animals such as bullocks and he-buffaloes can be used for generating commercially viable electricity for meeting daily peak load demand. It will boost the rural employment and income by using the idle time of the cattle for electricity generation. The installation cost and time are comparatively low. In many countries & few parts of India also, cows & she-buffaloes are used for draught power and can also be used for electricity generation.

TABLE – PREFERENTIAL FUEL

Purposes

Preferred fuels

Next preferred fuels

Least preferred fuels

*Mobile military hardware

Diesel, petrol

Ethanol, bio-diesel

-

*Air transport

bio-diesel

Ethanol

ATF, HSK

Marine transport

Bio-oil / pyrolysis oil

LDO, HFO, bunker fuel, Nuclear fuel, LNG

-

Civilian transport vehicles

Bio diesel, CNG, LPG

Battery power/electricity

Diesel / petrol

Railways

Pyrolysis oil, Electricity, Bio diesel

LPG

Diesel

Illumination/ lighting

Electricity, Koroch / bio diesel

Natural gas, LPG

Kerosene

Domestic- cooking

Natural Gas, Koroch / bio diesel, charcoal

LPG, Electricity

Kerosene

Domestic - space & water heating

Pyrolysis oil, charcoal, Solar energy, Natural Gas

LPG

Electricity, Kerosene

Domestic - other appliances

Electricity

Battery power

Diesel / petrol

Commercial-cooking

Natural Gas, bio-char

LPG, Pyrolysis oil, Electricity

Kerosene

Commercial- space & water heating

Solar energy, Natural Gas, Pyrolysis-oil

LPG

Electricity, Kerosene

Commercial- other appliances

Electricity, bio-diesel,

Battery power

Diesel / petrol

Industrial- motive power

Pyrolysis-oil, bio-diesel, bio-gas, Electricity

Natural Gas, LPG

Diesel / petrol

Industrial- heating & cooling

Pyrolysis-oil, Coal, lignite, Bio-char

Natural Gas, Electricity

Fossil liquid fuels

Urea fertilizer

Bio-gas / synthetic gas, bio-char

Natural gas, coal,

Naphtha

Industrial- raw materials

As required

-

-

Agriculture- water pumping

Pyrolysis-oil, bio-diesel, Electricity

LPG

Diesel / petrol

Agriculture- heating & drying

Bio-mass, Pyrolysis-oil,

LPG, bio-gas

Diesel / petrol

Agriculture- transport

Bio-diesel, LPG

CNG, bio-gas

Diesel / petrol

Agriculture- appliances

Bio-diesel, Electricity

LPG, bio-gas

Diesel / petrol

Electricity

Local coal, bio-char, lignite, nuclear, bio mass, pyrolysis oil, bio-gas, gobar gas, hydro, wind, (As per economical cost at user locations)

Natural gas (peaking power)

Petrol, Diesel, NGL, LPG, LDO, HFO, Naptha

Coal and lignite: These are mainly used to generate electricity, to fire boilers in process industry, to produce cement, etc. Coking coal is used as raw material in Iron manufacturing which is in shortage in India. India imports most of its coking coal requirements. India is blessed with 200 billon tons coal reserves which will last for 400 years at the present rate of consumption. The coal reserves will last for 40 years even the consumption is increased by 10 folds. These reserves are estimated based on coal found up to 600 meters depth. The reserves would increase further if the exploration is carried out at more depths and also under shallow sea water area. The presently used coal mining technologies are not cost competitive beyond 600 meters depth. However, underground coal gasification technology is maturing to convert coal in to clean gaseous fuel. The latest technology adopted from oil & gas wells drilling such as serpentine drilling / inseam drilling, guided drilling, bunching of wells, etc. has made in situ coal gasification technology a reliable and commercial proposition.

Big country like India cannot depend on imports as it is going to be huge portion of international trade in energy fuels. Coal is going to be the backbone of its energy sector until another lucrative energy harnessing technology is developed. The per capita CO2 emission by Indians will be less than world average, even after the coal consumption is increased to five times of present consumption.

Indian coal is of low calorific value with high ash content. They have comparatively less sulfur and heavy metals which are advantageous in pollution point of view. Indian coal also has high ash fusion temperature which is a positive factor in coal fired boiler design. Well proven boiler technologies are in use to fire high ash content coal.

The existing rail infrastructure to transport coal to various distant power stations is not adequate. Dedicated cross country coal slurry pipe lines are to be constructed to meet the coal transport requirements.

Energy starvation: It is defined as people living in surroundings where the temperature is less than 20ËšC and more than 30ËšC. When natural ambient temperature is not in the range of 20Ëš-30ËšC and surrounding temperature is not controlled, it is considered that energy starvation conditions are prevailing. This can be while in house or in work place or in commercial establishment or in mobile vehicle. The per capita energy starvation duration in India is in excess of 70%. Thus lot of demand for various energy resources will be felt in future decades as the living standards of people reach that of developed countries.

Energy policy of India: Depending on availability & geographical distribution of various energy sources and commercially viable technologies, the short & long term energy policies of India are to be framed for meeting energy requirements. Other than petroleum products and natural gas, all other energy resources are predominantly used for electricity generation. The following points are to be implemented in India

Since the liquid fuels are imported in large quantities, their consumption should be limited to unavoidable mobile hardware such as military vehicles, marine transport and air transport only.

Bio-diesel, CNG and LPG are preferred fuels for rest of transport sector.

Domestic & commercial sectors shall be supplied with piped natural gas for meeting heating and catering requirements.

Cross country natural gas pipe lines and city gas distribution piping network are to be constructed to supply natural gas to all users.