3. Methanol
Advantages:
i. Can be produced from our domestic coal. We have a lot of coal & it is pretty cheap. No problems of import dependency or price.
ii. Cleanest liquid hydrocarbon. Easy to transport.
iii. Can be used to make Di-Methyl Ether (DME) that can wholly replace Diesel. Diesel engines need minor tweaks to their compression ratios to use DME. DME can thus be used in road, rail & marine transportation.
Disadvantages:
i. Globally available tech for producing Methanol from Coal doesn't work on Indian coal due to its high ash content. We have to develop our own tech.
ii. It the poorest carrier of hydrogen. Also has the lowest calorific value. You would have to burn 1.9 liters of Methanol to produce energy equivalent to 1 liter of Petrol. Not feasible to be used for producing electricity.
Future scope:
Recently BHEL had a breakthrough with Methanol production. In Sep 2021 BHEL announced that their R&D centre in Hyderabad set up a coal gasification plant that is now producing 0.25 ton per day (TPD) of Methanol from Indian high ash coal using a 1.2 TPD Fluidized bed gasifier. SO they used 1.2 ton Indian coal to produce 0.25 ton Methanol.
India's first Indigenously Designed High Ash Coal Gasification Based Methanol Production Plant at BHEL R&D Centre, Hyderabad
https://dst.gov.in/indias-first-pil...hanol-can-accelerate-countrys-journey-towards
India has 340+ billion metric tons of coal, at our current consumption levels we consume less than 1/350th of our reserves every year. The low conversion ratio of Indian coal to Methanol is not a problem. The fact that we can produce high purity Methanol from Indian coal is a big deal. Still BHEL needs to establish the scalability of their tech.
Some good reads on Methanol in India:
vikaspedia Domains
https://www.thehindubusinessline.co...t-methanol-for-clean-fuel/article34183663.ece
https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/i...ould-be-a-cheaper-fuel-for-india-7540761.html
