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Coal, oil and gas
Coal, oil and gas: mining and imports, conversion such as coal gasification, thermal power, exploration, refining, strategic reserves, and the gas grid and its pricing. Prelims has asked what coal gasification can produce.
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Coal gasification
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Coal gasification is thermochemical and not biochemical: no microbe is involved, only heat, pressure and a controlled shortage of oxygen. The scheme India is funding does this in a reactor above ground, not in the seam where the coal lies.
- Gasification is not low carbon, though the carbon dioxide it makes comes out concentrated and so is easier to capture than flue gas.
Coal or lignite
Domestic coal or lignite as feedstock
Surface gasification
Partial oxidation with oxygen and steam at high temperature and pressure
Syngas
Mainly carbon monoxide and hydrogen
Products
Synthetic natural gas, methanol, ammonia and urea, hydrogen, direct reduced iron
What changed
8 Sep 2026
8 Sep 2026
- The first round of the Scheme for Promotion of Surface Coal/Lignite Gasification Projects closed in September 2026 with seven applicants from the public and private sectors, NTPC among them.
- It aims at import substitution of liquefied natural gas (LNG), urea, ammonia and methanol.
Background reading: The Hindu, 5 Sep 2026: Coal Ministry rejects 'No Takers' claim, says TFL, NTPC apply for gasification scheme (opens in a new tab)
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2025: what coal gasification technology can produce