News On Air | India Energy Week 2023: Union Minister Hardeep Puri inaugurates demo-run of Inland Water Vessel in Guwahati

Jan 24,2023

Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Housing and Urban Affairs, Hardeep Singh Puri today inaugurated the demo-run of Inland Water Vessel powered by Methanol blended Diesel (MD15) in Guwahati along with MoS Rameswar Teli in a run-up to India Energy Week 2023 (IEW 2023) to be held in Bengaluru from 6th February-8th February.

In an interaction with media, the Minister informed that Assam Petrochemical Limited (APL), Namrup currently produces about 100 TPD of Methanol and is implementing a new project for the production of 500 TPD of Methanol. He further added that the work is in progress to set up Coal-to-Methanol plants in the country using indigenous technology, which is being developed by BHEL (Hyderabad and Trichy), Thermax, and IIT Delhi. The boat ride was done on a 50-seater motor launch marine vessel named ‘SB Gangadhar’.

The marine vessel is equipped with two Ruston make diesel engines (each engine of 105 hp). The boat will be run on MD-15 (15% methanol blended HSD). Methanol is a low carbon hydrogen carrier fuel produced from high ash coal, agricultural residue, CO2 from thermal power plants and natural gas.

It is the best pathway for meeting India’s commitment to COP 21. It is also a cost-effective alternative marine fuel. IEW 2023  is the first major event under India’s G20 Presidency, which follows the Honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pledge at COP26 to cut India’s emissions to net zero by 2070.