'Explore coal gasification as feedstock for petrochemicals'

India should explore using coal gasification as feedstock to produce chemicals and petrochemicals in order to increase domestic output of these energy products, a top official said today.
"In last decade or so, the demand of petrochemicals has gone up substantially and unfortunately, this has led to increase in imports, as domestic output is lagging due to limited availability of feedstock like gas and oil," Chemicals Secretary Surjit Chaudhary said at a conference here.
He was speaking at the symposium on 'Potential of Coal Gasification in India' organised by FICCI, jointly with the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals.
The Secretary added that China has taken advantage of that as it is now supplying much of these chemicals to our country using coal gasification technology.

"India has rich reserves of coal which has high ash content. Therefore, time has come to encourage use of better technology and modern methods of exploration and production to enhance coal gasification," Chaudhary said.
Petrochemicals, which are derived from crude oil, could also be obtained from other sources, especially coal, guar-gum and neem, among others, he added.
"With the increase in imports of petrochemicals, it is resulting in sizeable capital outflow, therefore we need to raise the domestic output," he added.
Speaking at the same event, Jubilant Lifesciences Executive Director Shyam Bang said the pricing of coal should match the global standards.