BHEL or Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited has started a methanol plant in Hyderabad with a pilot scale of 0.25 metric tons per day capacity. The plant will generate methanol from high ash Indian coal.

Methanol is being tested as an alternative fuel for automobiles, and trials are going on in the country. The plant uses indigenously developed fluidized bed gasification technology suitable for high ash Indian coal to produce syngas from coal. And syngas is then converted to methanol, shared union minister of industries Mahendra Nath Pandey in Lok Sabha.

The methanol capacity for the year 2020-21 happens to be 4.74 lakh MT per annum, according to the annual report of the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals. The ministry of heavy industries (MHI) organized a round table to promote electric mobility on December 4, 2021. During the meeting, issues linked to the successful implementation of Production Link Incentive (PLI) on Auto & Auto components and Advance Chemistry Cell (ACC) were discussed.

Ministers and secretaries of various states, along with industry leaders of the auto sector, also participated in the round table, said minister Pandey replying to a query by MP Jagdambika Pal.